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A   POSSESSION    BY   THE   GODS   UPON    ONTAKfe.      Page  6 


OCCULT   JAPAN 


OR 


THE   WAY   OF   THE   GODS 


AN  ESOTERIC   STUDY    OF  JAPAXESE 
PERSONALITY  AND  POSSESSION 


BY 

PERCIVAL   LOWELL 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

(Cbc  fiibcrsitic  press",  <Cambriti£iE 
1S95 


Copyright,  1894, 
By  PERCIVAL  LOWELL. 

All  rights  reserved. 

7  /9  i  / 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.A. 
Electrotyped  and  Priuted  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Co. 


Z'^r\ 


IL 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Ontak6 I 

Shinto i6 

Miracles 36 

Incarnations 97 

Pilgrimages  and  the  Pilgrim  Clubs  .        .        .193 

The  Gohei 230 

The  Shrines  of  Ise 270 

Noumena : 

Self  . 278 

Selfhood  a  Force 285 

Possession        .        .       , 290 

Will '    .        .298 

Self  as  Ideas 304 

Ideas  a  Mode  of  Motion       ....  307 

Ideas  A  Force 317 

Individuality 320 

The  Japanese  Character    ....  323 

Dreams 33^ 

Hypnotic  Trances 343 

Possession  Trances 355 

.The  Shinto  Gods 3^8 


I 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


A  Possession  by  the  Gods  upon  Ontak6 

Frontispiece 
A  Buddhist  Divine  Possession     ....     162 
The  Leader  of  a  Pilgrim  Band  blessing  the 

Holy  Water 216 

A  Pilgrim  Club  ascending  Ontak6   .        .       .224 


OCCULT   JAPAN. 


ONTAKE. 


iN  the  heart  of  Japan,  withdrawn 
alike  by  distance  and  by  height  from 
the  commonplaces  of  the  every-day 
world,  rises  a  mountain  known  as  Ontake 
or  the  Honorable  Peak.  It  is  a  fine  volcanic 
mass,  sundered  by  deep  valley-clefts  from  the 
great  Hida-Shinshiu  range,  amidst  which  it 
stands  dignifiedly  aloof.  Active  once,  it  has 
been  inactive  now  beyond  the  memory  of 
man.  Yet  its  form  lets  one  divine  what  it 
must  have  been  in  its  day.  For  upon  its 
summit  are  the  crumbling  walls  of  eight  suc- 
cessive craters,  piled  in  parapet  up  into  the 
sky. 

It  is  not  dead  ;  it  slumbers.  For  on  its 
western  face  a  single  solfatara  sends  heaven- 
ward long,  slender  filaments  of  vapor,  faint 


2  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

breath  of  what  now  sleeps  beneath  ;  a  vol- 
cano sunk  in  trance. 

Almost  unknown  to  foreigners,  it  is  well 
known  to  the  Japanese.  For  it  is  perhaps 
the  most  sacred  of  Japan's  many  sacred 
peaks.  Upon  it,  every  summer,  faith  tells  a 
rosary  of  ten  thousand  pilgrims. 

Some  years  ago  I  chanced  to  gaze  from 
afar  upon  this  holy  mount ;  and,  as  the 
sweep  of  its  sides  drew  my  eye  up  to  where 
the  peak  itself  stood  hidden  in  a  nimbus  of 
cloud,  had  meant  some  day  to  climb  it. 
Partly  for  this  vision,  more  because  of  the 
probable  picturesqueness  of  the  route,  I 
found  myself  doing  so  with  a  friend  in  Au- 
gust, 1 89 1.  Beyond  the  general  fact  of  its 
sanctity,  nothing  special  was  supposed  to  at- 
tach to  the  peak.  That  the  mountain  held 
a  mystery  was  undreamed  of. 

We  had  reached,  after  various  vicissitudes, 
as  prosaically  as  is  possible  in  unprosaic 
Japan,  a  height  of  about  nine  thousand  feet, 
when  we  suddenly  came  upon  a  manifesta- 
tion as  surprising  as  it  was  unsuspected. 
Regardless  of  us,  the  veil  v/as  thrown  aside, 
and  we  gazed  into  the  beyond.  We  stood 
face  to  face  with  the  gods. 


ONTAA'E  3 

The  fathoming  of  this  unexpected  revela- 
tion resulted  in  the  discovery  of  a  world  of 
esoteric  practices  as  significant  as  they  were 
widespread.  By  way  of  introduction  to  them, 
I  cannot  do  more  simply  than  to  give  my 
own.  Set  as  the  scene  of  it  was  upon  the 
summit  of  that  slumbering  volcano  sunk  in 
trance  itself,  a  presentation  to  the  gods  could 
hardly  have  been  more  dramatic. 

We  had  plodded  four  fifths  way  up  the 
pilgrim  path.  We  had  already  passed  the 
first  snow,  and  had  reached  the  grotto-like 
hut  at  the  eighth  station  —  the  paths  up  all 
high  sacred  mountains  in  Japan  being  pleas- 
ingly pointed  by  rest-houses  ;  we  were  tar- 
rying there  a  moment,  counting  our  heart- 
beats, and  wondering  how  much  more  of  the 
mountain  there  might  be  to  come,  for  thick 
cloud  had  cloaked  all  view  on  the  ascent, 
when  three  young  men,  clad  in  full  pilgrim 
white,  entered  the  hut  from  below,  and,  deaf 
to  the  hut-keeper's  importunities  to  stop, 
passed  stolidly  out  at  the  upper  end  :  the 
hut  having  been  astutely  contrived  to  in- 
close the  path,  that  not  even  the  most  as- 
cetic might  escape  temptation.  The  devout 
look  of  the  trio  struck  our  fancy.     So,  leav- 


4  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

ing  some  coppers  for  our  tea  and  cakes, 
amid  profuse  acknowledgment  from  the  hut- 
keeper,  we  passed  out  after  them.  We  had 
not  climbed  above  a  score  of  rods  when  we 
overtook  our  young  puritans  lost  in  prayer 
before  a  shrine  cut  into  the  face  of  the  cliff, 
in  front  of  which  stood  two  or  three  benches 
conspicuously  out  of  place  in  such  a  spot. 
The  three  young  men  had  already  laid  aside 
their  hats,  mats,  and  staffs,  and  disclosed  the 
white  fillets  that  bound  their  shocks  of  jet- 
black  hair.  We  halted  on  general  principles 
of  curiosity,  for  we  had  no  inkling  of  what 
was  about  to  happen.  They  were  simply 
the  most  pious  young  men  we  had  yet  met, 
and  they  interested  us. 

The  prayer,  which  seemed  an  ordinary  one, 
soon  came  to  an  end ;  upon  which  we  expected 
to  see  the  trio  pack  up  and  be  off  again. 
But  instead  of  this  one  of  them.,  drawing 
from  his  sleeve  a  goJiei-waxi^,  and  certain 
other  implements  of  religion,  seated  himself 
upon  one  of  the  benches  facing  the  shrine. 
At  the  same  time  another  sat  down  on  a 
second  bench  facing  the  first,  clasped  his 
hands  before  his  breast,  and  closed  his  eyes. 
The  third  reverently  took  post  near  by. 


ontakE.  5 

No  sooner  was  the  first  seated  than  he 
launched  into  the  most  extraordinary  per- 
formance I  have  ever  beheld.  With  a  spas- 
modic jerk,  pointed  by  a  violent  guttural 
grunt,  he  suddenly  tied  his  ten  fingers  into  a 
knot,  throwing  his  whole  body  and  soul  into 
the  act.  At  the  same  time  he  began  a  mo- 
notonic  chant.  Gazing  raptly  at  his  digital 
knot,  he  prayed  over  it  thus  a  moment ;  then, 
with  a  second  grunt,  he  resolved  it  into  a 
second  one,  and  this  into  a  third  and  a  fourth 
and  a  fifth,  stringing  his  contortions  upon 
his  chant  with  all  the  vehemence  of  a  string 
of  oaths.  Startlingly  uncouth  as  the  action 
was,  the  compelling  intentness  and  sup- 
pressed power  with  which  the  paroxysmal 
pantomime  was  done,  was  more  so. 

His  strange  action  was  matched  only  by 
the  strange  inaction  of  his  vis-a-vis.  The 
man  did  not  move  a  muscle ;  if  anything,  he 
grew  momentarily  more  statuesque.  And 
still  the  other's  monotoned  chant  rolled  on, 
startlingly  emphasized  by  the  contortion 
knots. 

At  last  the  exorcist  paused  in  his  per- 
formance, and  taking  the  ^(?-^£'z-wand  from 
beside  him  on  the  bench,  placed  it  between 


6  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

the  other's  hands,  clenched  one  above  the 
other.  Then  he  resumed  his  incantation, 
the  motionless  one  as  motionless  as  ever. 
So  it  continued  for  some  time,  when  all  at 
once  the  hands  holding  the  wand  began  to 
twitch  convulsively ;  the  twitching  rapidly 
increased  to  a  spasmodic  throe  which  mo- 
mentarily grew  more  violent  till  suddenly  it 
broke  forth  into  the  full  fury  of  a  seemingly 
superhuman  paroxysm.  It  was  as  if  the 
wand  shook  the  man,  not  the  man  it.  It 
lashed  the  air  maniacally  here  and  there 
above  his  head,  and  then  slowly  settled  to  a 
semi-rigid  half-arm  holding  before  his  brow ; 
stiff,  yet  quivering,  and  sending  its  quivers 
through  his  whole  frame.  The  look  of  the 
man  was  unmistakable.  He  had  gone  com- 
pletely out  of  himself.  Unwittingly  we  had 
come  to  stand  witnesses  to  a  trance. 

At  the  first  sign  of  possession,  the  exor- 
cist had  ceased  incanting  and  sat  bowed 
awaiting  the  coming  presence.  When  the 
paroxysmal  throes  had  settled  into  a  steady 
quiver  —  much  as  a  top  does  when  it  goes 
off  to  sleep  —  he  leaned  forward,  put  a  hand 
on  either  side  the  possessed's  knees,  and  still 
bowed,  asked  in  words  archaically  reverent 


ONTAKE.  7 

the  name  of  the  god  who  had  thus  deigned 
to  descend. 

At  first  there  was  no  reply.  Then  in  a 
voice  strangely  unnatural,  without  being  ex- 
actly artificial,  the  entranced  spake  :  "  I  am 
Hakkai." 

The  petitioner  bent  yet  lower ;  then  rais- 
ing his  look  a  little,  preferred  respectfully 
what  requests  he  had  to  make  ;  whether  the 
peak  w^ould  be  clear  and  the  pilgrimage 
prove  propitious,  and  whether  the  loved  ones 
left  at  home  would  all  be  guarded  by  the 
god  ?  And  the  god  made  answer  :  "  Till 
the  morrow's  afternoon  will  the  peak  be 
clear,  and  the  pilgrimage  shall  be  blessed." 

The  man  stayed  bowed  while  the  god 
spake,  and  when  the  god  had  finished  speak- 
ing, offered  up  an  adoration  prayer.  Then 
leaning  forward,  he  first  touched  the  pos- 
sessed on  the  breast,  and  then  struck  him 
on  the  back  several  times  with  increasing 
insistency.  Under  this  ungodly  treatment 
the  possessed  opened  his  eyes  like  one  awak- 
ing from  profound  sleep.  The  others  then 
set  to  and  kneaded  his  arms,  body,  and  legs, 
cramped  in  catalepsy,  back  to  a  normal  state. 

No  sooner  was  the  ex-god  himself  again 


8  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

than  the  trio  changed  places  ;  the  petitioner 
moved  into  the  seat  of  the  entranced,  the 
looker-on  took  the  place  of  the  petitioner,  and 
the  entranced  retired  to  the  post  of  looker- 
on.  Then  with  this  change  of  persons  the 
ceremony  was  gone  through  with  again  to  a 
similar  possession,  a  similar  interview,  and 
a  similar  awakening. 

At  the  close  of  the  second  trance  the 
three  once  more  revolved  cyclically  and  went 
through  the  performance  for  the  third  time. 
This  rotation  in  possession  so  religiously 
observed  was  not  the  least  strange  detail  of 
this  strange  drama. 

When  the  cycle  had  been  completed,  the 
three  friends  offered  up  a  concluding  prayer, 
and  then,  donning  their  outside  accoutre- 
ments, started  upward. 

Revolving  in  our  minds  what  we  had  thus 
so  strangely  been  suffered  to  see,  we  too 
proceeded,  and,  being  faster  walkers,  had 
soon  distanced  our  god-acquaintances.  We 
had  not  been  long  upon  the  summit,  how- 
ever, when  they  appeared  again,  and  no 
sooner  had  they  arrived,  than  they  sat  down 
upon  some  other  benches  similarly  standing 
in  the   little   open    space  before  the  tip-top 


ONTAKE.  9 

shrine,  and  went  through  their  cyclical  pos- 
sessions as  before.  We  had  not  thought  to 
see  the  thing  a  second  time,  and  were  almost 
as  much  astounded  as  at  first. 

Our  fear  of  parting  with  our  young  god- 
friends  proved  quite  groundless.  For  on  re- 
turning to  the  summit-hut  after  a  climb 
round  the  crater  rim,  the  first  thing  to  catch 
our  eyes  amid  its  dim  religious  gloom  was  the 
sight  of  the  pious  trio  once  more  in  the  full 
throes  of  possession.  There  were  plenty  of 
other  pilgrims  seated  round  the  caldron 
fire,  as  well  as  some  native  meteorologists 
in  an  annex,  who  had  been  exiled  there  for 
a  month  by  a  paternal  government  to  study 
the  atmospheric  conditions  of  this  island  in 
the  clouds.  Up  to  the  time  we  met  them  the 
weather  had  been  dishearteningly  same,  con- 
sisting, they  informed  us  somewhat  pathet- 
ically, of  uninterrupted  fog.  The  exorcists, 
however,  took  no  notice  of  them,  nor  of  any 
of  the  other  pilgrims,  nor  did  the  rest  of  the 
company  pay  the  slightest  heed  to  the  exor- 
cists ;  all  of  which  spoke  volumes  for  the 
commonplaceness  of  the  occurrence. 

We  again  thought  we  had  seen  our  last  of 
the   gods,    and   again   were   we  pleasurably 


10  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

disappointed.  At  five  the  next  morning  we 
had  hardly  finished  a  shivery  preprandial 
peep  at  the  sunrise,  —  all  below  us  a  surging 
sea  of  cloud,  —  and  turned  once  more  into 
the  hut,  when  there  were  the  three  indefat- 
igables  up  and  communing  again  by  way  of 
breakfast,  for  they  took  none  other,  and  an 
hour  later  we  came  upon  them  before  the 
tip-top  shrine,  hard  at  it  for  the  fifth  time. 
And  all  this  between  four  o'clock  one  after- 
noon and  six  the  next  morning.  The  cycle 
was  not  always  completed,  one  of  the  three 
being  much  better  at  possession  than  the 
other  two,  and  one  much  worse,  but  there 
were  safely  ten  trances  in  the  few  hours  that 
fringed  their  sleep's  oblivion. 

And  nobody,  apparently,  took  any  cogni- 
zance of  what  was  going  on,  except  us  and 
the  meteorologists,  who  came  out  to  fra- 
ternize with  us,  and  volunteered  comments 
in  a  superior  manner  on  the  senselessness 
of  the  proceeding,  —  an  imported  attitude  of 
mind  not  destitute  of  caricature. 

Truly  the  gods  were  gracious  thus  to 
descend  so  many  times  ;  and  truly  devout 
their  devotees  to  crave  so  much  communion. 
Doubtless    an    inordinate   desire   for    their 


ONTAKE.  1 1 

society  is  gratifying  to  the  gods,  but  the 
frequency  of  the  talks  fairly  took  our  breath 
away,  though  it  had  no  perceptible  effect  on 
the  young  men's  nor  on  the  god's,  even  at 
that  altitude.  The  god  possessed  his  devo- 
tees with  comparative  ease  ;  which  was  edify- 
ing but  exhausting  ;  for  to  let  another  in- 
habit one's  house  always  proves  hard  on  the 
furniture.  And  all  this  took  place  on  top  of 
a  climb  of  ten  thousand  feet  toward  heaven. 
In  spite  of  it,  however,  these  estimable 
young  men  were  equal  to  a  tramp  all  over 
the  place  during  the  rest  of  the  morning. 
They  ascended  religiously  to  all  the  crater- 
peaks,  and  descended  as  piously  to  all  the 
crater  -  pools  —  and  then  started  on  their 
climb  down  and  their  journey  home  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,  much  of  it  to  be 
done  afoot.  That  night  saw  them  not 
only  off  the  mountain,  but  well  on  their  way 
beyond.  How  far  their  holy  momentum 
carried  them  without  stopping  I  know  not, 
for  the  last  we  saw  of  them  was  a  wave  of 
farewell  as  they  passed  the  inn  where  we 
had  put  up  for  the  night.  But  the  most 
surprising  part  of  the  endurance  lay  in  the 
fact  that  from  the  moment  they  began  the 


12  OCCULT  japan: 

ascent  of  the  mountain  on  the  early  morn- 
ing of  the  one  day,  till  they  were  off  it  on  the 
late  afternoon  of  the  next,  they  ate  nothing 
and  drank  only  water. 

Such  was  my  introduction   to  the  society 
of  the  gods  ;  and  this  first  glimpse  of  it  only 
piqued  curiosity  to  more.     No  sooner  back 
in  town,  therefore,  than  I  made  inquiry  •into 
the    acquaintanceship    I    had    so    strangely 
formed  upon  the  mountain,  to  receive  the 
most  convincing  assurance   of   its    divinity. 
The  fact  of  possession  was  confirmed  readily 
enough,  but  my  desire  for  a  private  repeti- 
tion  of   the  act   itself  was  received  at  first 
with    some    mystery   and    more   hesitation. 
However,  with  one  man  after  another,  offish- 
ness  thawed,  until,  getting  upon    terms  of 
cordiality  with  deity,  it  was  not  long  before 
I  was  holding  divine  receptions  in  my  own 
drawing-room.       Exalted    and    exclusive    as 
this  best  of  all  society  unquestionably  was, 
it  proved  intellectually,  like  more  mundane 
society  we  agree  to  call  the  best,  undeniably 
dull.     I  mention  this  not  because  I  did  not 
find  it  well   worth   knowing,  but  simply  to 
show  that  it  was  every  whit  the  company  it 
purported  to  be. 


ONTAKE.  13 


II. 


The  revelation  thus  strangely  vouchsafed 
me  turned  out  to  be  as  far-reaching  as  it  was 
sincere.  There  proved  to  exist  a  regular 
system  of  divine  possession,  an  esoteric  cult 
imbedded  in  the  very  heart  and  core  of  the 
Japanese  character  and  instinct,  with  all  the 
strangeness  of  that  to  us  enigmatical  race. 

That  other  foreigners  should  not  pre- 
viously have  been  admitted  to  this  company 
of  heaven  may  at  first  seem  the  strangest 
fact  of  all.  Certainly  my  introduction  can- 
not be  due  to  any  special  sanctity  of  my 
own,  if  I  may  judge  by  what  my  friends  tell 
me  on  that  subject.  Nor  can  I  credit  it  to 
any  desire  on  my  part  to  rise  in  the  world, 
whether  to  peaks  or  preferments  —  an  equally 
base  ambition  in  either  case  —  for  Ontake, 
though  not  of  every-day  ascent,  has  been 
climbed  by  foreigners  several  times  before. 
Rein,  that  indefatigable  collector  of  facts 
and  statistics,  managed  some  years  ago  to 
get  to  the  top  of  it  and  then  to  the  bottom 
again  without  seeing  anything.  The  old 
guide-book,  in  the  person  of  an  enthusiastic 
pedestrian,  contrived  to  do  the  like.     Other 


14  OCCULT  JAPAA'. 

visitors  of  good  locomotive  powers  also  ac- 
complished this  feat  without  penetrating  the 
secret  of  the  mountain.  And  yet  the  trances 
were  certainly  going  on  all  the  time,  and 
the  guides  who  piloted  these  several  gentle- 
men must  have  been  well  aware  of  the  fact. 

The  explanation  is  to  be  sought  else- 
where. The  fact  is  that  Japan  is  still  very 
much  of  an  undiscovered  country  to  us.  It 
is  not  simply  that  the  language  proves  so 
difficult  that  but  few  foreigners  pass  this 
threshold  of  acquaintance ;  but  that  the 
farther  the  foreigner  goes,  the  more  he  per- 
ceives the  ideas  in  the  two  hemispheres  to  be 
fundamentally  diverse.  What  he  expects  to 
find  does  not  exist,  and  what  exists  he  would 
never  dream  of  looking  for. 

Japan  is  scientifically  an  undiscovered 
country  even  to  the  Japanese,  as  a  study  of 
these  possessions  will  disclose.  For  their 
importance  is  twofold  :  archaeologic  no  less 
than  psychic.  They  are  other-world  mani- 
festations in  two  senses,  and  the  one  sense 
helps  accentuate  the  other.  For  they  are 
as  essentially  Japanese  as  they  are  essen- 
tially genuine.  That  is,  they  are  neither 
shams  nor  importations  from  China  or  India, 


ONTAKE.  1 5 

but  aboriginal  originalities  of  the  Japanese 
people.  They  are  the  hitherto  unsuspected 
esoteric  side  of  Shinto,  the  old  native  faith. 
That  Japanese  Buddhists  also  practice  them 
is  but  appreciative  Buddhist  indorsement  of 
their  importance,  as  I  shall  show  later.  We 
must  begin,  therefore,  with  a  short  account 
of  Shinto  in  general. 


SHINTO. 


I. 

HINTO,  or  the  Way  of  the  Gods,  is 
the  name  of  the  oldest  religious  be- 
lief of  the  Japanese  people.  The 
belief  itself  indefinitely  antedates  its  name, 
for  it  has  come  down  to  us  from  a  time  when 
sole  possession  of  the  field  precluded  denomi- 
nation. It  knew  no  christening  till  Buddhism 
was  adopted  from  China  in  the  sixth  century 
of  our  era,  and  was  then  first  called  Shinto, 
or  the  Way  of  the  Gods,  to  distinguish  it 
from  Butsudo,  or  the  Way  of  Buddha. 

if  it  thus  acquired  a  name,  it  largely  lost 
local  habitation.  For  Buddhism  proceeded 
to  appropriate  its  possessions,  temporal  and 
spiritual.  It  had  been  both  church  and  state. 
Buddhism  became  the  state,  and  assumed 
the  greater  part  of  the  churches ;  paying 
Shinto  the  compliment  of  incorporating,  with- 
out acknowledgment,   such  as  it  fancied  of 


SHINTO.  1 7 

the  Shinto  rites,  and  of  kindly  recognizing 
the  more  popular  Shinto  gods  for  lower 
avatars  of  its  own.  Under  this  generous 
adoption  on  the  one  hand,  and  relegation  to 
an  inferior  place  in  the  national  pantheon 
on  the  other,  very  little,  ostensibly,  was  left 
of  Shinto,  —  just  enough  to  swear  by. 

Lost  in  the  splendor  of  Buddhist  show, 
Shint5  lay  obscured  thus  for  a  millenium  ; 
lingering  chiefly  as  a  twilight  of  popular 
superstition.  At  last,  however,  a  new  era 
-dawned.  A  long  peace,  following  the  firm 
establishing  of  the  Shogunate,  turned  men's 
thoughts  to  criticism,  and  begot  the  com- 
mentators, a  line  of  literati,  who,  beginning 
with  Mabuchi,  in  the  early  part  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  devoted  themselves  to  a  study 
of  the  past,  and  continued  to  comment,  for  a 
century  and  a  half,  upon  the  old  Japanese  tra- 
ditions buried  in  the  archaic  language  of  the 
Kojiki  and  the  Nihongi,  the  history-bibles  of 
the  race.  As  science,  the  commentators' 
elucidations  are  chiefly  comic,  but  their 
practical  outcome  was  immense.  Criticism 
of  the  past  begot  criticism  of  the  present, 
and  started  a  chauvinistic  movement,  which 
overthrew  the  Shogunate  and  restored  the 


1 8  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Mikado  —  with  all  the  irony  of  fate,  since 
these  litterateurs  owed  their  existence  to  the 
patronage  of  those  they  overthrew.  This 
was  the  restoration  of  1868.  Shinto  came 
back  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  old.  The 
temples  Buddhism  had  usurped  were  puri- 
fied ;  that  is,  they  were  stripped  of  Buddhist 
ornament,  and  handed  over  again  to  the 
Shinto  priests.  The  faith  of  the  nation's 
springtime  entered  upon  the  Indian  summer 
of  its  life. 

This  happy  state  of  things  was  not  to  last. 
Buddhism,  and  especially  the  great  wave  of 
western  ideas,  proved  submerging.  From 
filling  one  half  the  government,  spiritual 
affairs  were  degraded,  first  to  a  department, 
then  to  a  bureau,  and  then  to  a  sub-bureau. 
The  Japanese  upper  classes  had  found  a  new 
faith  ;  and  Herbert  Spencer  was  its  prophet. 

But  in  the  nation's  heart  the  Shinto  senti- 
ment throbbed  on  as  strong  as  ever.  A 
Japanese  cabinet  minister  found  this  out  to 
his  cost.  In  1887,  Mori  Arinori,  one  of  the 
most  advanced  Japanese  new-lights,  then 
minister  of  state  for  education,  went  on  a 
certain  occasion  to  the  Shrines  of  Ise,  and 
studiously  treated  them  with  disrespect.     It 


X 


SHINTO.  19 

was  alleged,  and  apparently  on  good  author- 
ity, that  he  trod  with  his  boots  on  the  mat 
outside  the  portal  of  the  palisade,  and  then 
poked  the  curtain  apart  with  his  walking- 
stick.  He  was  assassinated  in  consequence  ; 
the  assassin  was  cut  down  by  the  guards, 
and  then  Japan  rose  in  a  body  to  do  honor, 
not  to  the  murdered  man,  but  to  his  mur- 
derer. Even  the  muzzled  press  managed  to 
hint  on  which  side  it  was,  by  som.e  as  curious 
editorials  as  were  ever  penned.  As  for  the 
people,  there  were  no  two  ways  about  it; 
you  had  thought  the  murderer  some  great 
patriot  dying  for  his  country.  Folk  by  thou- 
sands flocked  with  flowers  to  his  grave,  and 
pilgrimages  were  made  to  it,  as  to  some 
shrine.  It  is  still  kept  green  ;  still  to-day 
the  singing-girls  bring  it  their  branches  of 
plum  blossoms,  with  a  prayer  to  the  gods 
that  a  little  of  the  spirit  of  him  who  lies 
buried  there  may  become  theirs  :  that  spirit 
which  they  call  so  proudly  the  Yamato  Ko- 
koro,  the  heart  of  old  Japan. 

'  For  in  truth  Shinto  is  so  Japanese  it  will 
not  down.  It  is  the  faith  of  these  people's 
birthright,  not  of  their  adoption.  Its  folk- 
lore is  what  they  learned  at  the  knee  of  the 


20  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

race-mother,  not  what  they  were  taught  from 
abroad.  Buddhist  they  are  by  virtue  of  be- 
lief ;  Shinto  by  virtue  of  being.  ) 

Shinto  is  the  Japanese  coTiception  of  the 
cosmos.  It  is  a  combination  of  the  worship 
of  nature  and  of  their  own  ancestors.  But 
the  character  of  the  combination  is  ethno- 
logically  instructive.  For  a  lack  of  psychic 
development  has  enabled  these  seemingly 
diverse  elements  to  fuse  into  a  homogeneous 
whole.  Both,  of  course,  are  aboriginal  in- 
stincts. Next  to  the  fear  of  natural  phe- 
nomena, in  point  of  primjtiveness,  comes  the 
fear  of  one's  father,  as  children  and  savages 
show.  But  races,  like  individuals,  tend  to 
differentiate  the  two  as  they  develop.  Now, 
the  suggestive  thing  about  the  Japanese  is, 
that  they  did  not  do  so.  Filial  respect  lasted, 
and  by  virtue  of  not  becoming  less,  became 
more,  till  it  filled  not  only  the  whole  sphere 
of  morals,  but  expanded  into  the  sphere  of 
cosmogony.  To  the  Japanese  eye,  the  uni- 
verse itself  took  on  the  paternal  look.  Awe 
of  their  parents,  which  these  people  could 
comprehend,  lent  explanation  to  dread  of 
nature,  which  they  could  not.  Quite  co- 
gently, to  their  minds,  the  thunder  and  the 


:i 


SHINTO.  2 1 

typhoon,  the  sunshine  and  the  earthquake, 
were  the  work  not  only  of  anthropomorphic 
beings,  but  of  beings  ancestrally  related  to 
themselves.  In  short,  Shinto,  their  explana- 
tion of  things  in  general,  is  simply  the  patri- 
archal principle  projected  without  perspective 
into  the  past,  dilating  with  distance  into 
deity. 

That  their  dead  should  thus  definitely  live 
on  to  them  is  nothing  strange.  It  is  par- 
alleled by  the  way  in  which  the  dead  live 
on  in  the  thought  of  the  young  generally. 
Actual  personal  immortality  is  the  instant 
inevitable  inference  of  the  child-mind.  The 
dead  do  thus  survive  in  the  memories  of  the 
living,  and  it  is  the  natural  deduction  to 
clothe  this  subjective  idea  with  objective 
existence. 

Shinto  is  thus  an  adoration  of  family 
wraiths,  or  of  imputed  family  wraiths  ;  im- 
aginaries  of  the  first  and  the  second  order  in 
the  analysis  of  the  universeA  Buddhism 
with  its  ultimate  Nirvana  is  in  a  sense  the 
antithesis  of  this.  For  while  simple  Shinto 
regards  the  dead  as  spiritually  living,  philo- 
sophic Buddhism  regards  the  living  as  spir- 
itually dead  ;  two  aspects  of  the  same  shield. 


22  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

The  Japanese  thus  conceive  themselves 
the  direct  descendants  of  their  own  gods. 
Their  Mikado  they  look  upon  as  the  lineal 
descendant  of  Niniginomikoto,  the  first  God 
Emperor  of  Japan.  And  the  gods  live  in 
heaven  much  as  men,  their  descendants,  do 
on  earth.  The  concrete  quality  of  the  Jap- 
anese mind  has  barred  abstractions  on  the 
subject.  The  gods  have  never  so  much  as 
laid  down  a  moral  code.  "  Obey  the  Mika- 
do," and  otherwise  "follow  your  own  heart" 
is  the  sum  of  their  commands  ;  as  parental 
injunctions  as  could  well  be  framed.  So  is 
the  attitude  of  the  Japanese  toward  their 
gods  filially  familiar,  an  attitude  which 
shocks  more  teleologic  faiths,  but  in  which 
they  themselves  see  nothing  irreverent.  In 
the  same  way  their  conception  of  a  future 
life  is  that  of  a  definite  immaterial  extension 
of  the  present  one. 

To  foreign  students  in  consequence,  Shinto 
has  seemed  little  better  than  the  ghost  of  a 
belief,  far  too  insubstantial  a  body  of  faith  to 
hold  a  heart.  To  ticket  its  gods  and  pigeon- 
hole its  folk-lore  has  appeared  to  be  the  end 
of  a  study  of  its  cult. 

Nor  is  its  outward  appearance  less  unin- 


SHINTO.  23 

vitingly  skeleton-like.  With  a  deal  barn  of 
a  building  for  temple,  a  scant  set  of  deal 
paraphernalia,  and  so  to  speak  a  deal  of 
nothing  else,  its  appearance  certainly  leaves 
something  to  be  desired.  For  in  all  save 
good  Puritan  souls,  the  religious  idea  craves 
sensuous  setting.  Feeling  is  the  fuel  of 
faith  which  sights,  sounds,  and  perfumes  fan 
into  flame.  Sense  may  not  be  of  the  essence 
of  religion,  but  incense  is. 

II. 

In  but  one  thing  is  Shinto  patently  rich 
—  in  gods.  It  has  as  much  to  worship  as  it 
has  little  to  worship  with.  It  has  more  gods 
than  its  devotees  know  what  to  do  with. 
From  the  Goddess  of  the  Sun  to  the  gods  of 
rice  and  agriculture,  few  things  in  heaven  or 
earth  stand  unrepresented  in  its  catholic 
pantheon.  Biblical  biography  puts  the  num- 
ber roundly  at  eighty  myriads,  but  in  Jap- 
anese speech  "eighty"  and  "myriad"  are 
neither  of  them  mathematical  terms,  the  one 
being  a  mystic  number  and  the  other  a  con- 
ventional confession  of  arithmetical  incom- 
petency ;  both  expressions  being  rigorously 
rendered  in  English  by  the  phrase  "  no  end." 


24  OCCULT  japan: 

Nobody  ever  pretended  to  count  the  gods. 
Indeed,  to  do  so  would  be  pious  labor  lost ; 
for  the  roll  is  being  constantly  increased  by 
promotions  from  the  ranks.  Any  one  at 
death  may  become  a  god,  and  it  is  of  the 
entailed  responsibilities  of  greatness  that  the 
very  exalted  must  do  so. 

Of  course  no  merely  finite  man  can  pos- 
sibly worship  so  infinite  a  number  of  deities, 
though  time  be  to  him  of  oriental  limitless- 
ness.  So  each  makes  his  choice  of  inti- 
mates, and  clubs  the  rest  in  a  general  peti- 
tion, from  time  to  time,  to  prevent  accidents. 

His  first  choice  is  made  for  him  by  his 
parents.  A  week  after  birth  the  babe  is 
presented  at  the  temple  {miya  niairi)  and 
put  under  the  protection  of  some  special 
deity.  The  god's  preference  is  not  con- 
sulted in  the  affair ;  he  becomes  tutelary 
god  on  notification,  as  a  matter  of  course. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  tutelary  god  is 
the  patron  god.  For  every  branch  of  human 
industry  is  specially  superintended  by  some 
god.  Men  may  deem  it  beneath  them  to  be 
in  business,  but  the  gods  do  not.  Each  has 
his  trade,  and  spends  much  time  looking 
after  his  apprentices.     But  it  is  work  with- 


SHINTO.  25 

out  worry,  befitting  the  easy-going  East ;, 
the  god  of  honest  labor  being  portrayed  as  a 
jolly,  fat  fisherman,  very  comfortably  seated, 
chuckling  at  having  just  caught  a  carp. 

Pleasures,  too,  have  their  special  gods 
with  whom  perforce  their  notaries  are  on 
peculiarly  intimate  terms,  inasmuch  as  such, 
gods  are  very  boon-companion  patrons  of  the 
sport.  Furthermore,  every  one  chooses  his 
gods  for  a  general  compatibility  of  temper 
with  himself.  He  thus  lives  under  con- 
genial guardianship  all  his  life. 

Simple  as  such  conceptions  are,  there  is 
something  fine  in  their  sweet  simplicity. 
The  very  barrenness  of  the  faith's  buildings 
has  a  beauty  of  its  own,  touched  as  it  is  by 
Japanese  taste.  Through  those  gracefully 
plain  portals  a  simple  life  here  passes  to  a 
yet  simpler  one  beyond ;  and  the  solemn 
cryptomerea  lend  it  all  the  natural  grandeur 
that  so  fittingly  canopies  the  old. 

So  are  the  few  Shinta  rites  perfect  in 
effect.  Finished  fashionings  from  afar  past, 
they  are  so  beautifully  complete,  that  one 
forgets  the  frailty  of  th'="  conception  in  the 
rounded  perfection  of  the  form. 

One  sees  at  once  how  aboriginal  all  this 


26  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

is.  Childish  conceptions  embalmed  in  an 
exquisite  etiquette ;  so  Shinto  might  have 
been  ticketed. 

'  HI. 

But  the  mythologic  mummy  showed  no 
evidence  of  soul.  By  the  soul  of  a  faith,  as 
opposed  to  its  mere  body  of  belief,  I  mean 
that  informing  spirit  vouchsafed  by  direct 
communion  between  god  and  man  which  all 
.faiths  proclaim  of  themselves,  and  pooh-pooh 
of  all  the  others.  It  was  this  soul  that  so 
unexpectedly  revealed  itself  to  me  upon 
Ontake. 

We  must  now  see  what  the  Japanese  con- 
ceive this  soul  to  be.  Now  Shinto  philoso- 
phy is  not  the  faith's  strong  point.  The 
Japanese  are  artists,  not  scientists.  And  in 
their  revelations  their  gods  show  the  same 
simple  and  attractive  character.  If,  there- 
fore, the  Shinto  scheme  of  things  seem  at 
times  incompatible  with  itself,  the  gods  them- 
selves are  responsible,  not  I,  errors  and  omis- 
sions on  my  part  excepted.  For  I  have  it  all 
from  one  whose  authority  is  nothing  short 
of  the  god's  own  words,  vouchsafed  to  him 
in  trance,  ni}'  friend  the  high  priest  of  the 


SHINTO.  27 

Shinshiu  sect.  So  that  my  knowledge  of 
the  subject  is  but  second-hand  divine,  much 
nearer  the  source  of  inspiration  than  I  can 
ever  hope  in  reason  to  come  again. 

To  begin  with,  then,  all  things  in  heaven 
and  earth  are  composed  of  three  elements, 
{gotai  or  karada)  body,  {sJiinki)  mind  or 
spirit,  and  {taniashii)  soul.  Stocks  and 
stones,  plants,  animals,  and  some  men  have 
no  soul,  being  made  up  entirely  of  body  and 
mind.  The  behavior  of  some  men  seems  to 
lend  support  to  this  theory.  Gods,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  bodiless  and  consist  of  spirit 
and  soul,  except  the  supreme  god,  Ame-no- 
minaka-nashi-no-mikoto,  who  is  all  soul. 

SJiinki,  lit.  god-spirit,  is  related  to  tania- 
shii, soul,  much  as  a  substance  with  its 
attributes  is  related  to  the  same  substance 
without  them.  If  you  can  manage  the  con- 
ception of  the  first  of  these  philosophic  va- 
cuities, you  will  find  no  difficulty  with  the 
second.  Furthermore,  spirit  and  soul  may 
coexist  separately  in  one  body.  As  the  spirit 
clarifies,  that  is,  becomes  more  and  more 
blank,  it  approaches  soul  and  finally  be- 
comes it. 

The  one  thing  common,  therefore,   to  all 


28  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

things,  both  of  this  world  and  the  next,  is 
spirit.  Everything,  from  gods  to  granite, 
has  its  god-spirit.  Each  spirit  is  as  separate 
and  particular  as  the  body  it  inhabits  ;  yet 
it  is  capable  of  indefinite  expansion  or  con- 
traction, of  permeating  matter  and  of  going 
and  coming  according  to  laws  of  its  own. 
It  may,  perhaps,  be  looked  upon  provision- 
ally as  a  gas. 

Spirit  never  dies,  it  only  circulates. 
When  a  man  or  animal  or  plant  dies  its 
body  duly  decays,  but  its  spirit  either  lives 
on  alone  or  returns  to  those  two  great  res- 
ervoirs of  spirit,  the  gods  Takami-musubi- 
no-kami  and  Kami-musubi-no-kami.  From 
them  a  continual  circulation  of  spirit  is  kept 
up  through  the  universe.  Whether  a  spirit's 
personality  persists  or  not  is  a  matter  de- 
cided by  the  supreme  god,  and  depends  upon 
the  greatness  or  the  goodness  of  the  de- 
funct. For  example,  Kan  Shojo,  the  god  of 
calligraphy,  has  persisted  thus  posthumously 
for  almost  a  thousand  years.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  for  the  sake  of  Japan's  beautiful 
brushmanship,  that  he  will  continue  to  sur- 
vive and  be  worshiped  for  some  time  yet. 

Spirit  is  by  no  means    necessarily   good. 


SHINTO.  29 

It  is  manifest  that,  viewed  from  the  human 
standpoint,  some  things  are  harmful,  some 
harmless,  both  among  plants,  animals,  and 
men.  The  harmful  ones  are  therefore  bad  ; 
the  harmless  ones  may  or  may  not  be  good. 
Why  certain  inoffensive  animals,  for  exam- 
ple, have  got  a  bad  name,  or  even  a  good 
one,  is  as  inscrutable  as  the  cause  of  the 
gender  of  Latin  nouns.  They  are  given  a 
bad  name,  and  that  is  cause  enough.  It  will 
be  observed  that  in  this  system  of  ethics 
man  has  no  monopoly  of  original  sin. 

Similarly  the  gods  themselves  are  divided 
into  the  sheep  and  the  goats,  but  by  a  mer- 
ciful dispensation  of  something  or  other  the 
good  gods  are  mightier  than  the  bad.  In- 
deed, a  certain  evolutionary  process  is  going 
on  throughout  the  universe,  by  which  the 
bad  spirits  grow  good  and  the  good  better. 
It  is  described  as  a  continued  clarification, 
terminating  in  total  blankness. 

Spirit  not  only  circulates  after  death  ;  it 
may  do  so  during  life.  Usually  it  does  not 
wander  in  this  way,  simply  because  it  is  at 
home  where  it  is  and  inertia  keeps  it  there. 
But  in  some  cases  it  is  not  so  wedded  to  the 
body  with  which  it  is  associated,  and   the 


30  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

purer  it  becomes  the  more  is  it  given  to 
occasional  volatilizing. 

Now  esoteric  Shinto  consists  in  compel- 
ling this  spirit  to  circulate  for  particular  ends. 
This  is  not  a  difficult  matter,  if  it  is  properly- 
undertaken.  It  is  accomplished  through  self- 
purification.  For  the  degree  of  purity  deter- 
mines the  degree  of  possession.  Possession 
is  simply  the  entrance  into  one  body  of  an- 
other body's  spirit,  and  the  simultaneous 
expulsion  or  subjugation  of  the  spirit  origi- 
nally there. 

This  shift  of  spirit  may  take  place  between 
any  two  bodies  in  nature.  Nor  does  such 
interchange  differ  in  kind,  no  matter  what 
the  bodies  be.  But  for  the  sake  of  psy- 
chology rather  than  religion,  we  may  profit- 
ably consider  it  under  the  two  aspects  of 
god-possession  of  things  and  god-possession 
of  people.  The  one  gives  rise  to  the  mira- 
cles ;  the  other  to  the  incarnations.  Both 
kinds  of  possession  occurred  spontaneously, 
that  is,  at  the  will  of  the  gods,  in  olden 
times,  and  presumably  so  occur  at  the  pres- 
ent day  ;  but  the  gods  have  also  graciously 
granted  pure  men  the  power  to  pray  for  them 
acceptedly. 


SHINTO.  31 

In  the  case  of  people  the  act  of  possession 
is  nowadays  known  as  kami-oroshi,  kami- 
utsicshi,  or  kami-tctsiiri,  that  is,  "the  causing 
of  the  god  to  come  down,"  "the  causing  the 
god  to  transform  "  or  "god  transformation." 
The  first  two  names  thus  view  the  thing 
from  the  human  standpoint,  the  last  from 
the  divine.  But  this  is  matter  of  the  tempo- 
rary point  of  view,  all  three  expressions, 
with  others  such  as  nori-uisuri,  "  to  change 
vehicles,"  being  used  indifferently  according 
to  the  speaker's  preference. 

Possession  may  be  partial,  complete,  or 
intermediary,  that  is,  the  alien  spirit  may 
share  the  head  of  the  person  with  the  native 
spirit,  or  it  may  drive  it  out,  or  it  may  drive 
it  down  into  the  belly.  But  such  degrees  of 
tenancy  are  grades  rather  of  the  proficiency 
attained  during  novitiate  into  the  cult.  In 
actual  possessions  the  chief  distinction  con- 
sists in  the  character  of  the  god  who  comes. 

Possession  of  things  are  in  like  manner 
possible  through  purity  in  the  person  who 
would  bring  them  about.  They  are  called 
kamhvasa  or  god-arts,  because  originally 
only  the  gods,  and  now  only  the  gods  and 
the  godly,  can  perform  them. 


32  OCCULT  JAPAN. 


IV. 


Before  entering  upon  the  miracles,  it  is 
necessary  to  explain  the  present  position  of 
Shinto  with  regard  to  these  esoteric  prac- 
tices generally.  For,  though  as  we  shall  see 
when  we  look  later  into  their  history,  it  is 
probable  that  originally  they  were  the  com- 
mon property  of  all  Shintoists,  they  are  not 
so  to-day. 

Of  the  present  ten  sects  that  compose  the 
Shinto  church,  only  two  practice  the  pos- 
session-cult, the  Shinshiu  and  the  Mitakd 
sects.  That  they  do  so  while  the  others  do 
not  is  not  matter  of  creed,  but  of  tradition. 
Though  called  sects,  the  Shinto  sects  are 
not  properly  so  much  sects  as  sections.  For 
they  differ  not  by  differently  worshiping  an 
identical  god,  but  by  identically  worshiping 
different  gods.  Each  of  them  likewise  wor- 
ships, though  with  less  assiduity,  all  the  oth- 
ers' gods.  Each  looks  specially  to  the  great 
shrine  dedicated  to  its  special  gods ;  and  all 
but  two,  one  of  which  is  a  sort  of  general 
bureau  of  church  organism,  make  pilgrimages 
to  their  shrine  once  or  twice  a  year. 

These  sects  date  only  from  since  the  time 


SHINTO.  33 

of  the  revival  of  pure  Shinto  twenty  years 
ago.  But  under  another  name  the  profes- 
sors of  the  cult  hold  it  in  unbroken  practice 
from  the  far  past.  Whether  during  the  time 
of  Shint5's  long  eclipse  the  possession  cult 
was  kept  up  by  the  few  remaining  pure  Shin- 
toists,  if  indeed  there  can  be  said  to  have 
been  any  pure  Shintoists  then  at  all,  is  doubt- 
ful, although  the  priests  to-day  assert  that  it 
was  always  practiced  by  the  pious  in  secret. 
Certain  it  is,  however,  that  during  the  lapse 
of  Shinto  from  national  regard  practice  of 
the  cult  passed  to  all  intents  and  purposes  to 
a  hybrid  of  Shint5  and  Buddhism  known  as 
Ryobu  or  Both,  because  it  was  indeed  manu- 
factured of  both  creeds. 

The  great  Kobo  Daishi  is  the  reputed 
father  of  Ryobu.  This  worthy  soul  —  who 
by  the  way  was  never  called  Kobo  Daishi 
while  he  was  called  anything ;  he  was 
known  as  Kukai  so  long  as  he  was  known  at 
all  —  was  the  founder  of  the  Shingon  sect 
of  Buddhism  in  Japan.  He  seems  to  have 
been  singularly  energetic.  The  peak*  he 
climbed,  the  pictures  he  painted,  and  the 
divers  deeds  of  one  sort  and  another  which 
he  accomplished,  would  have  kept  Methuse- 


34  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

lah  on  the  jump  for  the  whole  of  his  millen- 
nial life.  Nevertheless,  he  found  time  amid 
it  all  to  invent  Ryobu.  His  invention  con- 
sisted in  a  judicious  hodge-podge  of  Shinto 
and  Buddhist  popularities.  His  diligence 
met  its  reward.  The  newly  invented  faith 
instantly  became  very  popular,  because  it  let 
everybody  in.  It  was  essentially  an  open 
air  faith,  much  given  to  mountaineering,  a 
trait  it  might  be  supposed  to  have  inherited 
from  its  father,  were  it  not  instinctive  in  a 
Japanese  to  climb. 

Ry5bu  has  more  than  one  sect,  but  it  was 
only  the  Ontake  sect  of  the  belief  that  prac- 
ticed god-possession.  It  kept  the  cult  alive 
for  a  thousand  years,  and  then,  when  pure 
Shinto  was  revived  at  the  time  of  the  Resto- 
ration, and  hybrids  were  abolished  by  impe- 
rial edict,  the  Ontake  Ryobuists  came  back 
again  into  the  Shinto  fold. 

Besides  Ry5bu,  some  of  the  Buddhist  sects 
early  saw  the  advantage  of  being  intimate 
with  deity,  and  Kobo  Daishi,  after  being 
taught  the  means  to  it  by  the  Shinto  Em- 
peror Sanga,  so  it  is  said,  not  satisfied  with 
inventing  Ryobu  apd  incorporating  it  in  that, 
boldly  took  it  for  his   own   Shingon  sect  of 


SHINTO.  35 

Buddhism.  And  the  Shingon  sect  still  prac- 
tices the  cult  to-day.  Denkyo  Daishi,  the 
founder  of  the  Tendai  sect,  was  likewise 
captivated  by  it  and  incorporated  it  into  his 
belief.  Lastly,  the  Nichiren  sect  learned  the 
art  and  indulges  in  it  now  more  than  either 
of  the  other  two. 

We  thus  find  at  the  present  time  among 
the  professors  of  the  cult  some  Shintoists, 
some  Ryobuists,  and  some  Buddhists,  each 
claiming  it  stoutly  for  its  own. 


MIRACLES. 


ULLARDS  will  always  deem  deli- 
cacy incompatible  with  strength. 
To  touch  a  subject  lightly  is  for 
them  not  to  touch  it  at  all.  Yet  the  phrase 
"  dead  in  earnest "  might  perhaps  hint  to 
them  that  there  is  more  virtue  in  liveliness 
than  they  suspect.  It  is  quite  possible  to  see 
the  comic  side  of  things  without  losing  sight 
of  their  serious  aspect.  In  fact,  not  to  see 
both  sides  is  to  get  but  a  superficial  view  of 
life,  missing  its  substance.  So  much  for  the 
people.  As  for  the  priests,  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  say  that  few  are  more  essentially  sin- 
cere and  lovable  than  the  Shinto  ones  ;  and 
few  religions  in  a  sense  more  true.  With 
this  preface  for  life-preserver  I  plunge  boldly 
into  the  miracles. 

Kamiwaza  or  god-arts  are  of  many  sorts, 
but    to   Japanese   piety   are   all   of    a   kind, 


MIRACLES.  -  37 

though  some  are  spectacular,  some  merely 
useful.  Causing  the  descent  of  the  Thun- 
der-God ;  calling  down  fire  from  Heaven  ; 
rooting  burglars  to  the  spot,  and  so  forth, 
to  say  nothing  of  killing  snakes  and  bring- 
ing them  to  life  again,  together  with  innu- 
merable like  performances,  are  all  included 
in  the  category,  and  are  all  simple  enough 
affairs  to  the  truly  good.  Nichiren,  for  ex- 
ample, broke  in  two  the  blade  of  his 
would-be  executioner  by  exorcism  taught 
him  of  the  Shint5  priests.  The  fact  without 
the  explanation  may  be  read  of  in  histories 
of  Japan. 

In  Shinto  the  miracles  are  not  so  impor- 
tant matters  as  the  incarnations  ;  for  good 
reason,  since  the  god  but  shows  his  power  in 
the  one  case,  his  self  in  the  other.  Yet  the 
church  takes  pleasure  in  displaying  them  for 
pious  purposes.  Any  fete-day  of  the  possess- 
ing sects  is  more  likely  than  not  to  have  a 
miracle  for  central  show,  and  for  his  great 
semi-annual  festivals  my  friend  the  head 
priest  of  the  Shinshiu  sect  has  announce- 
ment of  a  couple  of  them  printed  regularly 
as  special  attractions  on  his  invitation  cards. 

So  far  as  piety  classifies  them  at  all,   it 


38  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

does  so  according  to  their  scenic  effect  or 
for  the  difficulty  of  doing  them.  From  a 
psychologic  point  of  view,  however,  they 
fall  very  conveniently  under  two  heads  :  sub- 
jective miracles  and  objective  ones.  An 
account  of  the  former  may  properly  precede, 
since  it  includes  those  which,  on  the  whole, 
are  considered  the  greater. 

Chief  among  the  subjective  miracles  are 
what  are  called  collectively  the  Sankei  or 
the  three  great  rites.  The  bond  connecting 
the  trio  is  apparently  purely  extrinsic,  con- 
sisting solely  in  agreement  in  greatness.  In 
consequence,  on  very  important  festivals 
lasting  two  or  three  days,  they  are  performed 
in  turn  successively. 

II. 

The  first  and  simplest  of  these  Three 
Great  Rites  is  the  Kugadacki  or  Ordeal  by 
Boiling  Water. 

The  word  kugadacki  is  archaic  Japanese. 
In  Hepburn's  dictionary  a  dagger  stabs  it 
obsolete.  Furthermore,  the  departed  is 
given  no  character,  being  epitaphed  solely 
in  the  Japanese  sidescript.  Such  absence 
of  ideograph  implies  for  the  expression  an 


MIRACLES.  39 

age  antedating  the  time  when  the  Japanese 
learned  to  write ;  an  inference  fully  borne 
out  by  folk-lore.  For  the  ordeal  is  men- 
tioned more  than  once  in  the  Kojiki,  and 
seems  to  have  been  quite  popular  in  pre 
historic  times.  In  those  direct  days  it  was 
applied  as  touchstone  to  actual  guilt ;  in 
these  more  teleologic  times  merely  as  test 
of  theoretic  guilelessness. 

The  arrangements  for  the  rite  are  prim- 
itively picturesque.  A  huge  iron  pot,  as  it 
might  be  some  witches'  caldron,  is  cere- 
moniously set  in  the  midst  of  the  garden  or 
court.  About  it  is  then  built  a  magic 
square. .  Four  cut  bamboo,  tufted  at  their 
tops,  are  stuck  into  the  ground  some  eight 
feet  apart.  From  frond  to  frond  are  hung 
hempen  ropes.  This  makes  an  airy  sort  of 
palisade,  designed  to  keep  out  the  undesir- 
able devils.  Just  outside  of  the  space  thus 
inclosed  is  placed  a  deal  table,  on  which  one 
or  more  deal  boxes,  open  on  the  side,  make 
consecrated  pedestals  for  the  gohei.  The 
gohei  are  very  important  affairs,  of  which  I 
shall  have  much  to  say  later.  For  the  mo- 
ment it  will  suffice  to  state  that  they  are  zig- 
zag strips  of  paper  festooning  a  wand,  and 


40  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

are  the  outward  and  visible  symbols  of  the 
gods.  In  front  of  them  upon  the  table 
stands  a  saucer  of  salt;  while  behind  them 
bamboo  fronds  stuck  into  stands  rise  into  a 
background  of  plumes.^ 

Spring  water  is  then  brought  in  and 
poured  into  the  caldron.  On  my  first  oc- 
casion of  witnessing  the  miracle  I  was  at 
this  point  graciously  permitted  to  dab  my 
little  finger  into  the  water.  I  quite  fail  now 
to  see  why  I  desired  to  do  so,  but  I  am  very 
glad  I  did.  My  request  turned  out  a  most 
discreet  indiscretion,  productive  of  much 
spiritual  significance  later  on. 

A  fire  was  then  kindled  beneath,  and  we, 
professionals  and  amateurs,  stood  round 
about  the  square,  watching  for  the  water  to 
boil.  When  at  last  the  steam  started  to 
rise,  the  officiating  acolyte  emerged  from 
the  holy  bathhouse  near  by,  where  he  had 
been  purifying  himself,  clad  in  a  single 
white   robe.      That    is,   the  robe  was  white 

1  The  wood  I  have  here  and  elsewhere  translated  "  deal," 
on  account  of  its  appearance,  which  is  simple  to  a  degree, 
is  the  hinoki,  lit.  "  sun-wood,"  the  Thuya  obtusa,  or  Arbor 
vit(E.  Its  name  sun-wood  is  said  by  some  priestly  exposi- 
tors to  be  due  to  its  having  furnished  the  prehistoric  two 
sticks  from  whose  rubbing  first  came  fire. 


MIRACLES.  41 

theoretically ;  practically  it  was  a  post-dilu- 
vian gray,  a  hue  which  the  rite  soon  suf- 
ficiently explained. 

On  entering  the  mystic  square  he  clapped 
his  hands  ;  the  invariable  Japanese  method 
this,  of  summoning  anybody  from  gods  to 
servants.  It  is  worth  noting  here,  as  instan- 
cing the  familiar  terms  on  which  the  Japanese 
stand  with  their  gods,  that  they  should  thus 
indifferently  summon  deities  and  domestics. 

The  young  priest  then  started  to  circum- 
ambulate the  kettle  through  a  whole  series 
of  rites,  each  made  up  of  an  endlessly  similar 
basis  of  speech  and  action.  Now  it  is  all 
very  well  to  preach  against  vain  repetitions, 
but  with  anthropomorphic  gods,  as  with 
ordinary  mortals,  it  simply  has  to  be  done  if 
one  would  succeed  in  one's  request.  The 
Shinto  priests  realize  this  fact,  and  thor- 
oughly act  upon  it,  too  thoroughly  to  suit 
one  who  looks  impatiently  past  the  rep- 
etitions to  their  result.  Like  all  good  works, 
its  practical  effect  is  on  the  worker. 

Pantomime  and  prayer  wove  the  double 
strand  on  which  his  more  particular  beads  of 
rosary  were  told  ;  uncouth  finger-twists  and 
monotonic   formulae   pointed   by    expressive 


42  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

guttural  grunts.  Upon  this  undercurrent 
of  wellnigh  automatic  action  the  man  was 
insensibly  carried  along  through  successive 
cycles  of  rite.  Beginning  at  the  north  end 
of  the  square,  he  first  made  incantation 
facing  the  caldron  ;  then  walking  absorbedly 
round  to  the  south,  digitating  as  he  did  so, 
he  faced  the  kettle  and  repeated  his  spell. 
Continuing  as  before,  he  went  through  the 
same  performance  at  the  west  side ;  then  at 
the  east,  the  northwest,  the  northeast,  and 
the  southwest,  making  thus  at  least  a  half 
circuit  between  each  point.  All  this  was 
most  particular ;  though  as  a  matter  of  fact 
the  orientation  of  the  points  was  hypothet- 
ical. 

This  constituted  the  simple  motif,  as  it 
were.  No  sooner  was  it  completed,  than  he 
started  on  it  again  with  variations.  First  it 
was  salt.  From  the  saucer  on  the  stand  he 
helped  himself  to  a  handful  of  this,  and  mak- 
ing circuits  of  the  kettle  as  before,  deposited 
a  pinch  of  it  at  each  of  the  compass  points 
in  turn,  digitating  with  the  free  hand  as  he 
did  so,  after  the  manner  of  one  enjoining 
implicit  compliance  with  his  act.  After  this 
he  tossed  more  salt  into  the  air  toward  each 
of  the  four  quarters  of  the  heavens. 


MIRACLES.  43 

In  the  same  way  he  made  the  rounds  with 
a  flint  and  steel,  scattering  sparks  at  the 
proper  places.  Then  he  took  the  gohei- 
wand,  and  exorcised  the  water  in  like  fash- 
ion, by  cuts  in  the  air  of  imprecatory  vio- 
lence. Lastly,  he  made  the  circuit  with  two 
bamboo  fronds,  one  in  each  hand,  which  he 
dipped  into  the  seething  liquid,  and  then, 
lifting  them  loaded  with  boiling  water,  lashed 
the  air  above  his  head,  the  spray  falling  in 
a  scaldins:  shower-bath  all  over  him.  This 
he  did  north,  south,  east,  west,  and  then 
over  again  from  the  beginning,  on  and  on, 
in  one  continuous  round. 

To  this  boiling  shower-bath  there  seemed 
no  end.  Round  and  round  the  man  went, 
religiously  compassing  his  points,  repeating 
the  scalding  douche  at  each  with  ever-grow- 
ing self-abandonment.  Up  to  this  final  phase 
of  the  affair  he  had  seemed  to  be  carrying 
on  the  rite  ;  now,  the  rite  seemed  to  be 
carrying  him  on.  Still,  circuit  after  circuit 
he  made,  his  exaltation  rising  with  each  fresh 
dip ;  till  he  was  as  one  _  possessed,  lashing 
maniacally  first  the  water  and  then  the  air 
with  the  fronds,  scattering  the  scalding 
douche  not  only  over  himself,  but  over  all 


44  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

the  innocent  bystanders  as  well,  giving  them 
thus,  by  the  way,  the  most  convincing  proof 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  feat.  Higher  and 
higher  rose  the  pitch  of  his  possession  till, 
at  last,  nature  could  no  farther  go,  and  from 
the  acme  of  his  paroxysm  he  all  at  once  col- 
lapsed into  a  lump  of  limp  rag  upon  the 
ground.  The  others  rushed  in  and  bore  him 
away,  the  wilted  semblance  of  a  man. 

While  he  was  gone  to  prepare  himself  once 
more  for  this  world,  the  high  priest  explained 
to  me  the  spirit  of  the  rite. 

The  moon,  it  seems,  is  the  cause  of  it  all ; 
a  first  step  in  elucidation,  to  follow  which 
requires  less  stretch  of  the  western  imagina- 
tion than  the  next  succeeding  one.  For  that 
lunacy-inducing  body  is,  it  appears,  the  origin 
of  water ;  on  the  Incus  a  noii  principle,  we 
must  suppose,  inasmuch  as  it  has  none  to 
speak  of.  But,  whatever  the  cause,  the  spirit 
of  water  resides  in  the  moon ;  the  spirit  of 
cold  water,  be  it  understood,  cold  water  and 
hot  water  being,  in  Japanese  eyes,  quite  dif- 
ferent substances  with  different  names.  The 
spirit  of  hot  water  is  the  spirit  of  fire.  This 
rose  to  the  water  in  the  caldron  from  the 
fire  below  at  the  moment  the  water  boiled. 


MIRACLES.  45 

"Now,"  as  the  priest  quaintly  put  it,  "just 
as  there  are  veins  in  man's  body,  and  fissures 
in  the  earth,  so  are  there  arteries  in  the  air ; 
and  to  each  spirit  its  own  arteries.  When, 
therefore,  the  spirit  of  water  is  properly  be- 
sought, it  descends  from  its  abode,  the  moon, 
by  its  appropriate  paths,  and;  dispossesses 
the  spirit  of  fire,  which  sink's  bark  again  to 
the  charcoal  whence  it  came.  '  And  of  course 
the  hot  water  is  no  longer  hot. 

This  happy  result  is  w#rked  to  easier  per- 
fection amid  the  purity  of  the  peaks.  It  is, 
of  course,  an  irrelevant  detail  that  water  at 
those  altitudes  should  boil  at  a  lower  tem- 
perature. The  thin  air  of  the  peaks  is,  for 
purely  pious  reasons,  conducive  to  all  manner 
of  etherealization. 

In  addition  to  the  lunar  action  on  the 
^boiling  water,  the  performer  himself  is,  so 
the  priest  said,  temporarily  possessed  by  the 
lunar  spirit,  and  so  is  rendered  insensible 
to  the  heat,  which,  as  we  just  saw,  does  not 
exist,  so  that  the  second  action  might  seem 
to  savor  of  the  superfluous.  A  double  nega- 
tive of  the  sort  appears,  however,  to  make 
assurance  doubly  sure. 

When   the  man  returned,  clothed  and  in 


46  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

his  right  mind  once  more,  he  was  asked 
whether  he  felt  the  heat  of  the  water  during 
the  ordeal.  He  replied  that  sometimes  he 
did  and  sometimes  he  did  not ;  in  this  in- 
stance he  said  he  had  felt  nothing.  He  was 
a  frail-looking  youth,  of  ecstatic  eye,  evidently 
a  good  "subject,"  though  still  in  the  early 
stages  of  his  novitiate.  The  head  priest,  a 
much  stronger  man,  and  an  adept,  said  he 
always  felt  the  water,  but  not  the  heat  of  it ; 
an  interesting  distinction. 

Here  came  in  the  importance  of  my  dabble 
in  the  basin.  Though  it  had  been  but  to  the 
extent  of  a  little  finger,  —  and  that  by  re- 
ligious permission,  —  it  had,  it  appeared,  par- 
tially spoiled  the  miracle  on  that  side  of  the 
caldron,  preventing  the  water  there  from 
becoming  as  cold  as  elsewhere.  For  the 
acolyte  averred  that  he  had  perceived  a  dif- 
ference between  the  two.  But  he  had  just 
said  that  he  had  not  felt  the  heat  of  any  part 
of  it.  He  had  therefore  detected  a  distinc- 
tion without  a  difference,  a  degree  of  divinity 
quite  transcending  the  simply  not  feeling  at 
all.  Yet  he  was  unconscious  at  the  time, 
and  conscientious  afterward.  By  partially 
spoiling  the  miracle,  then,  it  would  seem 
that  I  had  considerably  improved  it. 


MIRACLES.  47 

III. 

The  second  miracle  of  the  Three  Great 
Rites  is  the  Hiwatari  or  the  Walking  Bare- 
foot over  a  Bed  of  Live  Coals. 

To  the  faithful  this  is  one  of  the  regular 
stock  miracles,  and  when  you  become  well 
known  to  the  profession  for  a  collector  of 
such  curios,  you  shall  have  offers  of  per- 
formance in  your  own  back-yard.  If  also  you 
be  friend  to  the  high-priest  of  the  Shinshiu 
sect,  you  may  have  a  chance  to  witness  it  in 
spring  and  autumn  in  special  glory  in  the 
grounds  of  the  sect's  head  temple  in  town. 
There,  beside  the  miracle  itself,  shall  you  see 
its  scarcely  less  curious  setting,  an  intent 
multitude  framing  the  walkers  round  about, 
worked  up  at  last  to  part  participation  itself. 
For  in  its  working  the  miracle  is  eminently 
democratic.  Even  professionally  it  is  not  a 
star  performance,  but  an  exhibition  by  the 
whole  company.  Fellowship,  they  say,  adds 
to  the  purity  of  the  rite.  It  certainly  con- 
duces to  exaltation.  In  the  second  place, 
performance  is  not  confined  to  the  profes- 
sionals. They  indeed  have  the  pas,  but 
after  they  have  thus  broken  the  ice  the  pop- 


48  OCCULT  japan: 

iilace  is  permitted  to  indulge  itself  in  the 
same  way  to  satiety.  For  while  the  bed  is 
possessed  by  the  god  any  sufficiently  pure 
person  may  tread  it  with  impunity  to  his 
cuticle  and  great  gain  to  his  good  luck. 
The  two  go  together.  The  difficulty  comes 
in,  in  accurately  estimating  the  degree  of 
one's  own  purity.  If  one  be  pure  enough  he 
will  cross  unscathed  ;  if  not,  his  more  mate- 
rial understanding  will  speedily  acquaint  him 
of  his  deficiency.  It  proves  a  sad  trial  to 
doubting  Thomases.  In  their  case,  to  pre- 
vious anguish  of  spirit  is  added  after  agony 
of  sole. 

The  bed  to  be  traversed  is  usually  from 
twelve  to  eighteen  feet  long  and  from  three 
to  six  feet  wide.  The  width  of  the  bed  is 
not  so  vital  to  the  miracle  as  the  length  of 
it ;  the  length  it  is  that  has  to  be  walked 
over  and  grows  tedious.  And  the  purity 
needed  to  do  this  increases  pari  passu  with 
the  length  —  only  in  geometrical  progres- 
sion. Here  it  is  not  the  first  step  that  costs, 
but  the  last  one. 

In  Ryobu  the  bed  of  state  is  an  eight- 
poster.  Eight  bamboo,  still  fronded,  are 
stuck  into  the  ground,  making  slender  posts 


MIRACLES.  49 

to  a  palisade  about  the  pyre.  Between 
them  runs  a  hempen  rope  from  frond  to  frond 
about  five  feet  above  the  ground.  From 
this  hang  forty-four  goJiei.  These  details 
are  important  in  ordinary  cases,  as  the  bam- 
boo are  dedicated  to  the  eight  heavenly 
dragons,  rainmakers  and  drawers  of  water 
generally.  But  if  the  ground  be  holy,  such 
outer  guarding  becomes  unnecessary ;  and 
indeed  it  is  a  fundamental  principle  in  eso- 
terics that  the  purer  the  performer  the  less 
paraphernalia  he  needs.  Pure  Shint5  is 
more  simple  in  its  rites  than  Ry5bu. 

Ordinarily  the  bed  is  made  as  follows : 
A  mattress  of  straw  mats  is  laid  upon  the 
ground,  and  on  this  a  sheet  of  seashore  sand. 
This  is  done  in  order  that  everything  may 
be  as  pure  as  possible.  On  top  of  this  sheet 
are  laid  first  twigs  and  then  sticks  criss-cross, 
after  the  usual  approved  principle  of  laying 
a  fire.  In  the  very  centre  of  the  pyre  a 
gohei  is  stood  up  on  its  wand. 

In  theory  the  bed  is  laid  four-square  to  the 
compass  points.  In  practice  one  side  is  con- 
veniently assumed  to  be  north,  which  is  just 
as  good  in  the  eyes  of  the  gods,  who  are  sub- 
limely superior  to  such  mere  matters  of  fact. 


50  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

For  fuel,  pine  wood  is  the  proper  article. 
Sticks  free  from  knots  are  preferred,  for 
resin  lurks  in  the  knots  and  has  a  spirit  hard 
to  quell.  So  long  as  a  man  is  truly  good  he 
does  not  care.  But  the  least  admixture  of 
sin  in  his  soul  causes  him  to  mind  these 
knotty  spots  acutely. 

Pine  is  still  used  in  the  country  and  in 
town  when  the  authorities  are  not  aware  of 
the  fact.  Legally,  however,  charcoal  is  en- 
joined instead,  owing  to  the  danger  of  con- 
flagration from  flying  wood-ashes  ;  and  at  the 
high-priest's  functions  the  law  is  dutifully 
observed. 

To  give  life  to  the  drama,  I  will  set  the 
scene  of  it  where  I  first  saw  it,  in  the 
grounds  of  the  head  temple  of  the  Shinshiu 
sect,  in  Kanda,  the  heart  of  Tokyo.  The 
crowd  had  already  collected  by  the  time  we 
arrived  ;  the  bed  had  been  laid  and  fired,  and 
the  whole  temple  company,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  high-priest  himself,  were  at  the 
moment  busied  about  the  pyre,  some  fan- 
ning the  flames  assiduously  with  open  fans 
strapped  to  the  end  of  long  poles,  while 
others  pounded  the  coals  flat  again  with 
staves.     All  were  robed  in  white  and  were 


MIRACLES.  51 

barefooted.  The  thing  made  a  fine  pageant, 
framed  by  the  eager  faces  of  the  multitude, 
and  set  in  the  cool,  clear  light  of  a  Septem- 
ber afternoon. 

When  they  judged  the  bed  to  have  been 
sufficiently  made,  they  began  upon  the  in- 
vitation to  the  god  to  descend  into  it.  A 
good  old  soul  full  of  devoutness  and  dignity 
led  off.  Proceeding  solemnly  to  the  north- 
ern end  of  the  glowing  charcoal,  he  faced 
the  bed,  clapped  his  hands,  bowed  his  head 
in  prayer,  and  then  with  energetic  finger- 
twistings  cabalistically  sealed  the  same. 
Then  he  started  slowly  to  circumambulate 
the  pyre,  stopping  at  the  middle  of  each  side 
to  repeat  his  act. 

When  he  was  well  under  way,  another 
followed  in  repetition  ;  then  a  third  and  a 
fourth,  and  so  on  down  to  the  youngest,  a 
youth  of  ecstatic  eye,  who  threw  himself 
body  and  soul  into  the  rite.  Seven  of  them 
in  all  were  thus  strung  out  in  line  walking 
round  about  the  pyre  and  sealing  it  digitally 
in  purification.  As  it  was  not  incumbent  on 
the  exorcists,  once  started,  to  travel  at  the 
same  rate,  the  march  soon  took  on  the  look 
of  a  holy  go-as-you-please  race. 


52  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

The  bed  was  circuited  interminably,  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  count,  so  riveting  to 
one's  attention  was  the  pantomime.  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  dedicatory  prayer  the  salt 
made  its  appearance.  For,  damaging  as  the 
statement  may  sound,  every  Shint5  miracle 
has  to  be  taken  with  a  great  many  grains  of 
it.  In  this  instance  the  salt  was  used  un- 
stintedly. A  large  bowl  filled  with  it  stood 
handily  on  one  corner  of  the  temple  veranda, 
and  each  priest,  as  he  came  up,  helped  him- 
self to  a  fistful,  and  then  proceeded  to  sow  it 
upon  the  coals,  finger-twisting  with  the  free 
hand  as  he  did  so.  The  sowing  was  done 
with  some  vehemence,  each  throw  being 
pointed  by  a  violent  grunt  that  so  suited  the 
fury  of  the  action  it  sounded  ominously  like 
an  imprecation.  But  it  was  only  an  em- 
phatic command  to  the  evil  spirits  to  avaunt. 

After  considerable  salt  had  thus  been  sown 
from  the  cardinal  points,  the  head  of  the 
company  struck  sparks  from  a  flint  and  steel 
in  the  same  oriented  way  over  the  bed,  the 
others  still  throwing  on  salt  promiscuously 
for  general  efficacy.  In  addition  to  what 
was  thus  scattered  over  the  coals,  a  mat  at 
either  end  of  the  bed  was  spread  with  salt 


MIRACLES.  53 

•  During  all  this  time  the  high-priest,  who 
took  no  active  part  in  the  rite  himself, 
being  busied  with  his  duties  as  host,  was 
nevertheless  engaged  upon  a  private  fur- 
therance of  the  affair,  quite  obliviously,  he 
told  me  afterward.  It  consisted  in  breath- 
ing modulately  in  and  out  of  his  pursed-up 
lips.  This  action  is  a  great  purifier  ;  as  we 
shall  see  later.  It  is  only  to  the  godless  that 
it  suggests  an  inexpert  whistler  vainly  at- 
tempting a  favorite  tune. 

A  pause  in  the  rite  now  informed  every- 
body that  the  god  had  come,  and  everybody 
watched  intently  for  what  was  to  follow; 
with  mixed  emotion,  I  fancy,  for  the  enter- 
tainment partook  of  the  characters  of  a 
mass,  a  martyrdom,  and  a  melodrama  all  in 
one. 

The  original  old  gentleman  once  more  led 
off.  Taking  post  at  the  bed's  northern  end, 
he  piously  clapped  his  hands,  muttered  a  few 
consecrated  words,  and  then  salting  his  soles 
by  a  rub  on  the  mat,  stepped  boldly  on  to 
the  burning  bed  and  strode  with  dignified 
unconcern  the  whole  length  of  it.  He  did 
this  without  the  least  symptom  of  discomfort 
or  even  of  notice  of  his  own  act. 


54  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

In  their  order  the  others  followed,  each 
crossing  with  as  much  indifference  as  if  the 
bed  were  mother-earth.  When  all  had  gone 
over,  all  went  over  again. 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  laymen.  The 
passing  of  the  priests  had  been  a  pageant, 
dignified  and  slow ;  the  procession  of  the 
common  folk  was  its  burlesque.  The  priests 
had  seemed  superior  to  the  situation  ;  their 
lay  brethren  often  fell  ludicrously  below  it. 

Any  one  who  would  was  invited  to  try  his 
foot  at  it ;  not,  I  may  add,  in  the  spirit  of 
somewhat  similar  secular  invitation  at  the 
circus.  Xo  deception  whatever  lay  hidden 
behind  the  permit.  For  the  pure  are  sure  to 
cross  in  safety,  and  to  him  who  crosses  with 
impunity,  substantial  benefits  accrue. 

Many  bystanders  availed  themselves  of  the 
privilege.  Indeed,  not  a  few  had  come  there 
for  the  purpose.  Some  did  so  on  the  pious 
understanding  that  the  fire  could  not  longer 
burn  ;  others  apparently  upon  a  more  skep- 
tical footing.  One  firm  believer  incurred  no 
little  odium  for  the  extreme  character  of  his 
con\ictions.  So  persuaded  was  he  of  the 
now  harmless  state  of  the  charcoal  that  he 
sauntered  solemnly  across,   rapt  in  revery, 


MIRACLES.  55 

quite  oblivious  to  a  string  of  less  devout 
folk  whom  his  want  of  feeling  kept  in  mid- 
bed  on  tenterhooks  behind  him.  In  the  ex- 
tremity of  their  woe  they  began  hopping 
undignifiedly  up  and  down,  and  finally  in 
their  desperation  pushed  him  off  at  the  last, 
to  his  very  near  capsizing.  For  in  spirit  he 
was  somewhere  else,  utterly  unsuspicious  of 
a  sudden  irreligious  shove  from  behind. 

Another  individual  found  it  hotter  than  he 
had  hoped,  and,  after  taking  one  step  stolidly 
enough,  lost  all  sense  of  self-respect  at  the 
second,  and  began  skipping  from  foot  to  foot 
in  vain  attempts  at  amelioration,  to  the  de- 
rision of  the  lookers-on,  especially  of  such  as 
did  not  dare  venture  themselves.  Appar- 
ently, he  thought  better  of  it  a  little  later, 
or  perhaps  he  found  himself  more  scared 
than  scarred.  For  soon  after  I  noticed  that 
he  had  adventured  himself  again,  and  this 
time,  to  his  credit,  with  becoming  majesty 
of  march. 

Indeed,  the  procession  was  as  humorous 
as  humanity.  All  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men,  women,  and  children  went  over  first  and 
last.  All  were  gain  to  religion,  for  nothing 
showed  more  conspicuous  than  the  buoyant 


56  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

power  of  faith.  It  was  not  the  sole,  but  the 
self  that  trod  there,  stripped  of  social  cover- 
ing. In  the  heat  of  the  moment  the  walkers 
forgot  their  fellow-men  and  walked  alone 
with  their  god.  Characters  came  out  vividly 
in  the  process,  like  hidden  writing  before  the 
fire.  Each  contrasted  oddly  with  its  neigh- 
bors, often  treading  close  on  its  opposite's 
heels,  jostling  emotion  itself  by  the  juxta- 
position. Now  a  sturdy  jinrikisha  man,  per- 
suaded that  the  crossing  would  bring  him 
fares,  went  over  as  a  matter  of  business,  and 
in  his  wake  a  small  boy,  unable  to  resist  so 
divine  a  variety  of  tittle-ties  on  thin  ice,  fol- 
lowed for  doubtless  a  very  different  reason. 
Then  a  family  in  due  order  of  etiquette  ven- 
tured successfully  along  in  a  line.  Now  a 
dear  old  grandam,  bent  by  years  to  a  ques- 
tion mark  of  life,  hobbled  bravely  across 
notwithstanding ;  and  now  a  fair  little  girl, 
straight  and  slim  as  an  admiration  point,  per- 
formed the  feat  vicariously,  but  I  doubt  not 
as  effectively,  in  the  arms  of  one  of  the 
priests.  A  touch  of  the  fine  in  all  this 
that  tended  to  film  the  eyes,  and  lend  the 
scene  a  glamour  which,  if  not  strictly  re- 
ligious, was  its  very  close  of  kin. 


MIRACLES.  57 

« 

Many  of  the  lay-folk,  not  content  with  one 
crossing,  returned  for  more ;  the  church 
kindly  permitting  any  number  of  repetitions. 
Indeed,  the  performance  was  exceedingly 
popular. 

When  the  last  enthusiast  had  had  enough, 
the  embers  were  prodded  by  the  poles  into 
pi.  This  airing  of  his  bed  causes  the  god  not 
unnaturally  to  depart.  After  he  has  gone 
no  one  may  cross  unscathed ;  and  no  one 
attempted  to  do  so.  Under  coals  are  cer- 
tainly more  fiery  than  surface  ones,  espe- 
cially if  the  latter  have  been  well  sprinkled 
with  salt. 

A  final  prayer  pointed  with  finger-pan- 
tomime closed  the  function. 

The  use  of  the  salt  deserves  further  men-  -^ 

tion.  In  this  instance  it  was  a  salient  fea- 
ture of  the  rite,  and  had  been  enjoined  by 
no  less  a  personage,  it  appeared,  than  the 
.  god  himself.  But  as  the  deity  had  com- 
manded it  under  the  somewhat  poetic  title 
of  "  Flower  of  the  Waves,"  the  high-priest 
had  been  at  first  at  a  loss,  so  he  said,  to 
comprehend  the  divine  meaning.  Later  the 
god  had  condescended  to  an  explanation. 
Nevertheless,    this    flowery   title,    so    I   am 


58  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

given  to  understand,  is  in  common  secular 
use. 

To  the  undevout  mind  the  salting  of  the 
bed  would  seem  to  conduce  to  the  success 
of  the  feat.  For  salt  is  a  very  glutton  of 
heat,  and  will  do  pretty  much  anything  to 
get  it,  however  menial,  from  melting  snow 
on  horse-car  tracks  to  freezing  ice-cream. 
Cooling  coals  is  therefore  quite  in  character 
for  it.  This,  its  unappeasable  appetite  for 
caloric  is  not  unknown  to  the  profession. 
The  priests  nobly  admitted  that  the  salt 
mitigated  the  full  rigor  of  the  miracle. 

The  miracle  does  not,  however,  depend 
for  performance  upon  its  use ;  only  one  has 
to  be  holier  to  work  the  miracle  without  it. 
At  times  fire-walking  is  done  quite  fresh  ; 
preferably  amid  the  purity  of  the  hills,  with 
whose  freshness  its  own  is  then  in  keep- 
ing. But  it  is  occasionally  so  performed  in 
town. 

The  origin  of  the  rite  mounts  back  to 
extreme  antiquity.  It  dates  from  before  there 
were  men  to  walk,  having  been  instituted  of 
the  gods  in  the  days  when  they  alone  lived 
in  the  land.  Walking,  indeed,  is  not  of 
its  essence ;   peripatetic   proof  being   but  a 


MIRACLES.  59 

special  mode  of  showing  one's  immunity  to 
fire.  The  possibility  of  such  immunity  was 
first  demonstrated  by  a  lady,  the  goddess 
who  rejoices  in  the  simple  but  somewhat 
protracted  name  of  Ko-no-hana-saka-ya-hime- 
no-mikoto.  It  sounds  better  when  trans- 
lated :  the  Goddess  who  makes  the  Flower- 
buds  to  open.  She  is  perhaps  better  known 
as  the  Goddess  of  Fuji,  She  invented  the 
miracle  in  order  to  persuade  her  doubting 
spouse,  the  god  Ninigi-no-mikoto,  of  the 
falsehood  of  certain  suspicions  which  he  had 
been  ungallant  enough  to  entertain  about 
her.  She  built  herself  a  house  against  her 
confinement,  and  then,  after  the  babe  was 
born,  burnt  it  to  the  ground  over  her  head, 
without  so  much  as  scorching  herself  or  the 
baby.  This  of  course  reassured  Ninigi-no- 
mikoto,  and  is  chiefly  noteworthy  as  an  in- 
stance of  a  miracle  converting  a  god  himself. 
Those  who  care  to  read  all  the  evidence  in 
the  case  will  find  it  in  the  Nihonshoki, 
an  invaluable  work  in  fifteen  volumes  of 
archaic  Japanese. 

Walking  over  the  coals  with  impunity  is 
attributable  only  in  part  to  virtue  in  the  per- 
former.    Immunity  from  harm  is  chiefly  due 


60  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

to  the  fact  that  the  fire  has  lost  its  power  to 
burn.  It  has  parted  with  its  spirit.  Materially 
considered,  the  fire  is  still  there,  but  spirit- 
ually speaking  it  is  extinct.  This  is  why, 
when  it  has  been  once  exorcised,  the  veriest 
tyro  may  cross  it  without  a  blister.  The 
spirit  of  water  has  descended  to  it  from  the 
moon  and  driven  the  spirit  of  fire  out  of  the 
coals.  Any  skeptic  might  soon  prove  this 
to  his  own  satisfaction  by  just  walking  over 
the  coals  himself,  were  true  piety  compatible 
with  doubt. 

"  The  object  of  the  rite,"  so  the  high- 
priest  expounded  it  to  me,  "  is  that  the  pop- 
ulace may  see  that  the  god  when  duly  be- 
sought can  take  away  the  burning  spirit  of 
fire  while  permitting  the  body  of  it  to 
remain.  For  so  can  he  do  with  the  hearts  of 
men ;  the  bad  spirit  may  be  driven  out  and 
the  good  put  in  its  place  while  still  the  man 
continues  to  exist." 

To  the  coldly  critical  eye  of  science  two 
things  conduce  to  the  performance  of  this 
feat.  One  is  the  toughness  of  the  far  east- 
ern sole.  The  far  Oriental  inherits  a  much 
less  sensitive  nervous  organization  than  is 
the  birthright  of  a  European,  and  his  cuticle 


MIRACLES.  6 1 

is  further  calloused  to  something  not  unlike 
leather  by  constant  exposed  use.  This 
leaves  the  distance  to  be  traversed  between 
the  natural  sensitiveness  and  the  induced  in- 
sensitiveness  considerably  less  than  it  would 
be  with  us.  The  intervening  step  is  the 
result  of  exaltation.  By  first  firmly  believ- 
ing that  no  pain  will  be  felt  and  then  in- 
ducing a  state  of  ecstasy  whose  preoccupa- 
tion the  afferent  sensation  fails  to  pierce,  no 
pain  is  perceived. 

More  than  this,  the  burn  is  probably  not 
followed  by  the  same  after-effects.  For 
there  is  a  more  or  less  complete  absence  of 
blisters.  The  part  burnt  is  burnt  like  cloth, 
and  that  is  the  end  of  it.  No  inconvenience 
whatever  follows  the  act  among  the  truly 
good.  In  less  devout  folk  small  blisters  are 
raised,  but  without  noticeable  annoyance. 
The  fact  is  that  in  burns  generally  it  is  the 
cure  that  constitutes  the  complaint.  It  is 
the  body's  feverish  anxiety  to  repair  the 
damage  that  causes  all  the  trouble.  Even  in 
the  severest  burns  very  little  of  us  is  ever 
burnt  up,  but  our  own  alarm  that  it  may 
be  induces  our  consequent  inflammation, 
Delboeuf  showed  this  conclusively  upon  one 
of  his  hypnotized  patients. 


62  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Faith,  therefore,  does  in  very  truth  work 
the  miracle.  We  know  this  now  that  mir- 
acles have  ceased  to  be  miraculous;  which 
is  perhaps  a  little  late  for  purely  pious  pur- 
poses. 

IV. 

We  now  come  to  the  third  miracle  of  the 
three  ;  the  Tsiirugi-watari,  or  the  Climbing 
the  Ladder  of  Sword-blades. 

Among  the  incredible  feats  that  we  are 
asked  to  believe  of  Indian  jugglers,  not  the 
least  astounding  is  their  reputed  power  of 
treading  and  even  of  lying  with  impunity 
upon  sword-blades ;  an  ability  which  some 
of  us  are  inclined  to  credit  to  the  verb  in 
its  other  sense.  Nevertheless,  the  same 
startling  if  unnecessary  bit  of  acrobatism 
may  be  seen  every  spring  in  Tokyo  quite 
secularly  done  among  the  peep-shows  about 
Asakusa.  To  such,  however,  as  still  remain 
skeptical  on  the  subject,  it  may  prove  con- 
vincing to  learn  that  the  thing  is  a  miracle, 
one  of  the  great  miracles  of  the  Shint5 
church. 

It  dates  from  a  dateless  antiquity.  In 
the  Nihonshoki  mention  is  made  of  it  older 
than  Jiramu  Tenn5  himself,  the  first  human 


MIRACLES.  63 

Emperor  of  Japan.  Its  first  instance  seems 
to  have  been  a  case  of  necessity.  When  the 
two  gods,  Futsu-nushi-no-kami  and  Take- 
mika-tsuchi-no-kami  were  sent  from  heaven 
to  request  0-ana-muchi-no-kami  to  resign  the 
Japanese  throne,  we  are  told  that  on  coming 
into  his  presence  they  imposingly  planted 
their  swords  hilt  downwards  in  the  ground, 
and  then,  arms  akimbo,  seated  themselves 
stolidly  upon  the  points.  Unlike  the  bash- 
ful individual  who  sat  down  upon  the  spur 
of  the  moment  only  to  rise  hastily  again, 
their  seats  seemed  to  have  proved  quite 
comfortable,  for  they  delivered  a  long  and 
somewhat  tedious  harangue  in  that  not  in- 
effective attitude. 

This  style  of  camp-stool  had,  however,  gone 
out  of  fashion  when  I  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  the  miracle  last  September  ;  the  mod- 
ern mode  of  doing  the  thing  being  to  set  the 
blades  edge  up  and  then  walk  over  them. 
The  walking  was  about  to  be  performed,  so 
rumor  said,  at  Hachioji,  which  it  appeared 
was  one  of  the  habitats  of  the  miracle.  For 
shrines  have  their  pet  miracles  as  they  have 
their  patron  gods.  Upon  investigation  ru- 
mor turned  out  to  be  correct  in  all  but  date, 


64  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

the  walking  having  unfortunately  taken  place 
the  previous  April,  at  the  annual  festival 
of  the  shrine  of  which  it  was  the  specialty, 
and  would  not  be  repeated  until  the  April 
following.  Seven  months  seeming  long  to 
wait  even  for  a  miracle,  I  ventured  to  suggest 
to  the  priests  a  private  performance.  They 
instantly  expressed  themselves  as  very  will- 
ing to  give  it,  stipulating  merely  for  a  week's 
prior  mortification  of  the  flesh.  Such  indul- 
gence being  a  necessity  to  any  Shinto  mir- 
acle, the  date  fixed  on  for  the  spectacle  was 
set  duly  ahead,  and  some  ten  days  later,  on  a 
veritable  May  morning  in  early  October,  we 
left  Tokyo  for  Hachioji  by  the  morning  train 
to  witness  it. 

There  were  five  of  us,  including  two  globe- 
trotting friends  of  mine,  who,  having  seen 
one  miracle,  had  developed  a  strong  amateur 
interest  in  religion,  and  Asa,  my  "boy." 

From  Hachioji  we  were  bowled  in  jinri- 
kisha  some  four  miles  out  of  the  town  to  a 
small  temple  known  as  Hachiman  Jinja, 
situate  on  the  outskirts  of  the  hamlet  of 
Moto-Hachioji.  The  temple  buildings,  well 
parasoled  by  ancient  trees,  stood  upon  a 
spur  overlooking  the  little  valley  where  the 


MIRACLES.  65 

grass-grown  roofs  of  the  village  peeped 
domestically  from  amid  the  crops.  An  army 
of  mulberry  bushes  in  very  orderly  files 
flanked  them  round  about,  silk-worm  rearing 
being  the  village  occupation  ;  so  much  so 
that  it  had  given  its  name  to  the  local  pil- 
grim-club under  whose  auspices  the  function 
was  to  be  performed. 

Two  gods  shared  the  temple  very  cor- 
dially ;  0-ana-muchi-no-kami,  the  right-hand 
god  of  the  Ontake  trio,  and  Hachiman  Daijin, 
the  god  of  war.  0-ana-muchi-no-kami  was 
the  patron  god  of  the  feat  we  had  come  to 
see.  He  himself  was  wont  not  only  to  walk 
upon  the  blades,  but  at  times  went  so  far  as 
actually  to  go  to  sleep  upon  them,  a  seem- 
ingly useless  bit  of  bravado  only  paralleled 
by  the  pains  some  people  are  at  to  tell  you 
how  they  doze  in  their  dentist's  chair. 

From  the  head  priest's  house  we  made  our 
way  up  a  hill  to  the  temple.  As  we  turned 
the  corner  of  the  outer  buildings  we  caught 
sight,  at  the  farther  end  of  the  grounds, 
of  so  startling  a  scaffold  that  we  all  instinc- 
tively came  to  a  point  —  of  admiration  — 
before  it.  Evidently  this  was  the  material 
means  to  the  miracle,  for  against  it  a  ladder. 


66  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

with  notches  suggestively  vacant  of  rungs, 
led  up  to  a  frail  plank  platform  raised  aston- 
ishingly high  into  the  air.  We  had  somehow- 
assumed  that  the  sword-walking  took  place 
on  the  flat,  and  not,  as  it  appeared  it  was  to 
be  done,  skyward. 

When  we  had  sufficiently  recovered  from 
our  first  surprise  to  examine  this  startling 
structure,  we  found  it  to  consist  of  four  stout 
poles,  planted  securely  in  the  earth,  and 
braced  by  cross-ties,  holding  two  thirds  way 
up  the  above-mentioned  platform,  upon  which 
stood  a  shrine.  The  height  of  this  upper 
story  above  the  ground  proved  to  be  thirteen 
feet.  Upon  a  secular  ladder  at  the  side  some 
priests  were  giving  a  few  finishing  touches 
to  the  work. 

Inclosing  the  scaffold  stood  four  fronded 
bamboo,  one  at  each  corner  of  a  square,  con- 
nected eight  feet  up  by  a  straw  rope,  with 
sixteen  goJiei,  four  on  a  side,  pendent  from 
it.  This  poetic  palisade  kept  out  the  evil 
spirits ;  a  bamboo  railing  below  kept  out 
small  boys. 

Upon  the  shrine  above,  which  was  simply 
a  deal  table,  stood,  dignifiedly  straight,  and 
commandingly  lined  in    a  row,    three  gohei 


MIRACLES.  67 

upon  their  wands.  In  front  of  them,  upon  a 
lower  table,  stood  five  others,  colored  respec- 
tively, yellow,  red,  black,  white,  and  blue,  the 
five  far  eastern  elemental  colors.  The  upper 
row  represented  the  gods  of  construction, 
placed  here  to  keep  an  eye  on  the  scaftbld- 
ing  ;  the  lower,  the  gods  of  the  earth.  Flank- 
ing the  gohei  stood  two  branches  of  sakaki, 
the  sacred  tree  of  Shinto,  draped  with  lace- 
like filaments  of  gohei.  At  the  corners  of 
the  platform  four  tufted  bamboo,  joined  by  a 
straw-rope  hung  with  gohei,  made  a  second 
palisade,  miniature  of  the  one  below  ;  while 
from  a  pole  at  the  back  floated  a  banner  in- 
scribed :  Heavenly  Gods,  Earthly  Gods. 

Half  way  up  the  scaffold  two  paper  pla- 
cards, one  on  either  side  the  ladder,  challenged 
the  eye.  The  right-hand  one  gave  the  func- 
tions and  functionaries  of  the  festival :  the 
Principal  Purifier,  the  Vice-Purifier,  the  Chief 
of  Offerings,  the  Purifying  Door,  and  the 
God-Arts  ;  the  offices  preceded,  the  names  of 
the  persons  followed.  The  other  specified 
the  various  functions  of  the  God-Arts  them- 
selves, and  the  names  of  those  who  bore 
them,  a  certain  Mr.  Konichi  being  down  as 
Drawing  the  Bow.     This,  it  seemed,  was  to 


68  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

be  taken  in  a  purely  ceremonial  sense,  the 
real  archer  being  Mr.  Kobayashi. 

For  his  benefit,  four  short  posts  about  four 
feet  high  had  been  planted  directly  under  the 
platform,  ready  to  receive  two  swords,  on 
the  blades  of  which  he  was  to  stand  while 
engaged  in  his  act.  We  could  not  help  won- 
dering how  he  was  to  get  upon  them.  In- 
deed, the  elevating  nature  of  the  whole  per- 
formance was  not  the  least  impressive  part 
of  it.  The  reason  for  this  lay,  we  were  told, 
in  the  intrinsic  purity  of  high  places,  because 
above  the  ordinary  level  of  mankind.  Cer- 
tainly, with  a  ladder  of  sword-blades  for  sole 
means  of  approach,  the  platform  above  did 
not  seem  likely  to  prove  overcrowded. 

On  the  left  stood  the  Kagura-do  or  dan- 
cing-stage, filled  with  musicians,  who  were  at 
the  moment  engaged  in  tuning  up  —  not  a 
highly  melodious  performance  at  best.  They 
kindly  desisted  to  let  us  lunch  upon  the 
stage,  which  we  did  while  the  other  prepara- 
tions went  on,  to  the  open-mouthed  enjoy- 
ment of  many  small  villagers,  who  had  already 
begun  to  collect  for  the  occasion.  As  soon 
as  lunch  was  over  the  swords  were  brought 
out.     They  had   not   been   lashed   in    place 


MIRACLES.  69 

before,  in  order  that  we  might  first  inspect 
them.  This  we  now  did  to  our  satisfaction. 
They  were,  one  and  all,  old  samurai  blades, 
as  sharp  as  one  would  care  to  handle  —  from 
the  hilt  —  and  much  sharper  than  he  would 
care  to  handle  in  any  less  legitimate  manner. 
They  certainly  did  not  seem  adapted  to  tread- 
ing on,  even  tentatively.  There  were  twelve 
of  them,  all  loans  from  the  neighborhood, 
and  heirlooms,  every  one,  from  knightly 
times  —  not  so  great  an  antiquity  as  it 
sounds,  since  the  middle  ages  were  but 
twenty  years  ago.  But  I  should  never  have 
imagined  so  many  retired  knights  or  their 
heirs  in  so  very  retired  a  hamlet.  The  blades 
themselves  bore  evidence,  however,  of  hav- 
ing been  possessed  and  probably  used  for 
quite  an  indefinite  time  by  their  owners  ;  and 
this  touch  of  local  domesticity  imparted  a 
certain  sincerity  to  the  act  artistically  con- 
vincing in  itself. 

The  swords  were  then  lashed  in  place. 
But  as  the  divine  archery  was  to  precede 
the  divine  climb,  and  there  were  twelve  sets 
of  notches  in  the  ladder  and  but  twelve 
blades  in  all,  those  destined  for  its  two  lower 
rungs  were  lashed  first  upon  the  shooting- 


70  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Stand.  The  ladder  measured  fifteen  feet  in 
length,  the  rungs  being  about  a  Japanese 
foot,  fifteen  inches  of  our  feet,  apart ;  doubt- 
less such  distance  being  found  in  practice 
the  most  comfortable.  After  securely  tying 
on  the  swords,  blades  up,  the  priests  de- 
parted to  dress  for  the  function. 

Meanwhile  a  capital  pantomime  was  in 
progress  upon  the  dancing-stage.  A  dance- 
hall  is  an  invariable  feature  of  every  well- 
appointed  Shinto  temple,  and  is  put  in  play 
on  every  possible  occasion.  The  performers 
are  sometimes  girls,  sometimes  men,  the 
former  doing  the  serious  dancing  and  the 
latter  the  jocose  mimes.  Both  are  always 
capital,  and  on  this  occasion  I  think  the 
show  outdid  itself.  Certainly  it  proved 
comic  enough  to  keep  the  religious  in  roars. 
Three  buffoons  in  fine  pudding-faced  masks 
engaged  in  turn  in  an  altercation  with  an 
impressive  gray-beard.  The  altercation  was 
of  an  intermittent  character  owing  to  the 
necessity  felt  by  the  pudding-faced  citizen 
•  of  taking  the  audience  into  his  confidence 
by  elaborate  asides  of  side-splitting  simpli- 
city, digressions  which  in  no  wise  prevented 
the  row's  proper  emotional  increase,  till  at 


MIRACLES.  71 

last  it  culminated  in  a  fight  which  the  gray- 
beard,  who  did  nothing  but  stalk  round  with 
a  fine  woodeny  walk,  invariably  won.  This 
was  due  quite  simply  to  his  god-like  great- 
ness, and  not  to  the  fact  that  his  adversary 
went  through  the  fight  with  his  scabbard  in 
lieu  of  his  sword,  having  with  elaborate  in- 
advertence drawn  the  one  for  the  other,  a 
mistake  at  which  he  was  subsequently  pro- 
portionately surprised.  All  this,  of  course, 
detracted  not  a  whit  from  the  sanctity  of 
the  performance,  which,  like  that  of  orato- 
rios, came  in  with  the  historical  characters 
the  performers  were  supposed  to  represent. 

In  the  mean  time  the  countryside  had 
been  silently  gathering.  The  ubiquitous 
little  girl  with  the  pick-a-back  baby  appeared 
first.  Her  familiars  followed  ;  the  waifs 
growing  in  stature  as  they  grew  in  numbers. 
I  did  not  see  them  come  ;  I  only  saw  them 
there.  And  they  made  as  modest  a  setting 
to  the  miracle  as  do  the  mountings  to  a 
Japanese  painting.  There  was  about  them, 
indeed,  a  little  of  the  ecstatic  stupor  of  the 
cow,  but  the  usual  bovine  stare  of  modern 
Japanese  curiosity  was  here  tempered  by 
instinctive  old-fashioned  politeness. 


72  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

A  Japanese  street-crowd  pleasingly  lacks 
that  brutality  which  distinguishes  a  western 
one  ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  a  stare  of 
its  own,  an  unobstrusively  obstrusive  stare, 
which  knows  no  outlawing  limit  of  age,  and 
has  a  vacancy  in  it  that  almost  bars  offense. 
Apparently  it  is  never  outgrown.  It  alone 
would  convict  the  race  of  a  lack  of  self-con- 
sciousness and  very  nearly  of  a  lack  of  any 
consciousness  whatsoever.  I  love  the  Japan- 
ese urchin  for  all  that,  whether  staring  or 
not,  but  to  me  advanced  age  in  the  starer 
stales  the  infinite  unvariety  of  his  act.  Or- 
derly, however,  and  good-natured,  a  Japanese 
crowd  is  past  praise,  and  one  would  think 
past  policemen,  which  is  not,  I  suppose,  why 
the  latter  always  turn  up  at  such  seasons. 
Here,  however,  I  was  much  pleased  to  note 
their  conspicuous  absence.  And  still  the 
concourse  grew.  When  I  first  counted  the 
folk  they  numbered  one  hundred  and  fifty. 
Shortly  after,  as  near  as  I  could  estimate, 
there  were  two  hundred  and  fifty  people  on 
the  spot,  of  all  ages,  sizes,  and  conditions. 
The  whole  countryside  had  turned  out,  with 
or  without  the  baby,  according  as  it  existed 
or  not.     Nobody's  occupation  seemed  to    in- 


MIRACLES.  73 

terfere  with  his  presence  there  in  the  least, 
from  the  village  ragamuffin  to  the  village 
belle.  Charming  girls  I  noticed  in  the  act 
of  commenting  upon  us,  I  trust  favorably ; 
for,  as  one  of  my  friends  puts  it  about  his 
books,  I  would  rather  please  the  young  girls 
than  the  old  men. 

But  though  we  had  not  reckoned  with- 
out our  host,  we  had  reckoned,  it  soon  turned 
out,  without  our  uninvited  guest  —  the  in- 
evitable policeman.  Just  as  we  had  taken 
chairs  on  the  oratory  platform,  and  had  for- 
gotten his  existence,  he  turned  up.  He  did 
so  inopportunely  for  himself,  for  the  first 
prayer  had  begun,  and  he  had  perforce  to 
wait  till  it  was  over  to  put  his  official  ques- 
tions. The  prayer  was  the  first  of  the  puri- 
fication rites,  and  was  offered  before  an  im- 
provised altar  on  the  oratory.  The  altar  was 
set  out  as  the  customary  divine  dinner-table 
and  displayed  the  usual  choice  collection  of 
indigestibles  ;  fortunately  always  to  be  taken 
in  a  strictly  immaterial  manner.  For  every 
Shinto  service  is  nothing  but  a  divine  din- 
ner-party, with  the  god  for  sole  guest.  In 
this  case  the  aboriginal  banquet  was  offered 
to  the  gohei  of  0-ana-muchi-no-mikoto,  the 
patron  god  of  the  occasion. 


74  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

The  adjournment  made  the  policeman's 
opportunity.  Stiffly  lifting  his  hat,  as  if  the 
action  were  itself  part  of  bureaucratic  au- 
tomatism, he  challenged  a  lay  brother  on  the 
oratory  steps  and  proceeded  to  interview 
him  on  the  cause  of  the  crowd.  Apparently 
the  lay  brother  worsted  him,  for  at  the  end 
of  the  colloquy  he  was  so  far  humbled  as 
simply  to  send  me  his  card,  with  the  modest 
request  to  know  if  I  were  a  noble,  as  in  that 
case  he  wished  to  salute  me  properly ;  to 
which  I  returned  mine  with  the  reply  that 
T  was  not  a  noble,  but  an  American,  and 
therefore  only  the  sixty-millionth  part  of 
a  sovereign,  and  left  him  to  figure  out  the 
respect  due  in  so  complicated  a  case. 

The  occasion,  however,  soon  had  a  human- 
izing effect  even  upon  his  officialdom,  so 
that  he  shortly  grew  quite  tame  and  ac- 
cepted at  the  hands  of  the  lay  brother  a  seat 
upon  the  platform  beside  us. 

Meanwhile  the  priests  were  busy  with 
prayers  and  finger-charms  on  the  mats  at 
the  foot  of  the  ladder,  and  when  enough  of 
them  had  been  restored  there  took  place  a 
solemn  walk-round  by  the  whole  company 
about  the  staging. 


MIRACLES.  75 

Mr.  Konichi,  the  Sacred  Bow,  and 
Mr.  Kobayashi,  the  Chief  of  God-Arts,  then 
armed  themselves  with  two  beautiful  bows 
beribboned  at  the  end  with  a  tangle  of  col- 
ored gohei  of  the  five  elemental  colors,  and 
proceeded,  the  one  to  mount  by  the  secular 
ladder,  which  had  not  yet  been  removed,  to 
the  altar  above,  where  he  went  through  much 
pantomimic  archery ;  the  other  to  do  like 
effigy-shooting  below.  The  Chief  of  the 
God-Arts  was  specially  effective.  Stretching 
his  bow  at  each  corner  of  the  square  in  turn, 
he  made  semblance  to  shoot  at  the  demons, 
and  accentuated  his  performance  by  quite 
unearthly  grimaces.  He  knotted  first  his 
fingers  and  then  his  face  in  a  truly  startling 
manner.  Nature  had  endowed  him  with  a 
remarkably  expressive  physiognomy,  which 
even  in  repose  bordered  perilously  upon 
caricature.  When  this  came  to  be  further 
heightened  by  art,  as  enthusiastic  perform- 
ance of  the  rite  demanded,  the  effect  was 
extreme,  quite  capable  of  driving  off  devils, 
which  was  its  object,  and  very  nearly  of  driv- 
ing off  the  bystanders,  which  was  not.  The 
pious  saw  in  it  the  most  realistic  piety. 
What  the  children  saw  I  will  not  pretend  to 


^6  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

guess,  but    I    can    conceive  the  nightmares 
they  may  have  had  in  consequence. 

When  he  had  thus  successfully  frightened 
off  the  evil  spirits  without,  he  entered 
within  the  staging,  and  before  the  arrow- 
stand  further  scared  the  imps.  As  the  exor- 
cism drew  to  an  end  and  we  began  once  more 
to  wonder  how  he  was  going  to  mount  his 
hobby-horse,  the  big  drum  was  brought  by 
somebody  and  set  up  beside  the  stand.  This 
solved  the  enigma  and  enabled  the  Chief  of 
God-Arts,  with  the  help  of  a  pole,  to  rise 
carefully  to  the  ends  of  the  posts  and  to 
place  first  one  foot  and  then  the  other 
lengthwise  upon  the  blades,  the  forward 
edges  coming  out  between  his  great  and 
second  toes.  He  then  discarded  the  pole,  as 
I  have  seen  more  secular  performers  do,  to 
the  catch  of  an  assistant,  and  stood  poised 
upon  the  knife-edges.  Not  content  with 
standing  upon  them,  he  must  needs  tilt 
himself  up  and  down  as  one  does  in 
testing  the  breaking  power  of  a  plank. 
This,  of  course,  merely  showed  how  much  at 
home  he  felt  upon  the  blades.  Then  with 
due  deliberation  he  fitted  an  arrow  into  its 
notch,    raised  the  bow,  and    drew  it  to  his 


MIRACLES.  yy 

shoulder.  In  this  effective  pose  he  re- 
mained a  long  time,  uttering  what  sounded 
uncommonly  like  an  oath,  but  was  in  fact  a 
song,  sister  to  this  :  — 

"  The  God  of  the  Bow  bends  down  from  on  high, 
And  at  twang  of  the  string,  lo  !  the  demons  fly." 

The  string,  however,  did  not  twang.  For 
the  exorcism  continued,  and  the  bow  stayed 
bent.  Indeed,  the  one  was  as  long  drawn 
out  as  the  other,  and  the  suspense  was  be- 
coming positively  painful,  when  at  last  he 
released  the  arrow  into  the  air.  The  de- 
mons had  evidently  taken  the  hint,  for  the 
arrow  buried  itself  harmlessly  in  the  bushes. 

With  the  assistance  of  the  pole  he  then 
changed  his  pose  a  quarter  way  round,  plant- 
ing first  one  foot  and  then  the  other  care- 
fully across  both  blades.  Then  discarding  the 
pole,  he  again  went  through  the  same  pan- 
tomime as  before,  ending  in  a  second  release. 
His  pose  at  this  point  was  quite  magnificent, 
and  his  intentness  such  that  as  with  his  eye 
he  followed  the  arrow's  flight,  his  whole 
audience  instinctively  did  the  same.  We 
failed  to  see  the  shaft  strike,  and,  turning 
back,  behold  !  there  it  was  still  in  his  hand. 


78  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Whether  economy  or  the  remains  of  original 
sin  prompted  this  pious  framd,  I  know  not, 
but  he  thus  deceived  us  more  than  once,  as 
he  turned  round  quarter-wise  upon  his  holy 
pedestal.  Once  he  hit  a  tree,  quite  by  acci- 
dent, and  the  crowd  applauded.  After  he 
had*  thus  revolved  several  times,  he  called 
again  for  the  pole  and  carefully  descended 
from  his  pinnacle.  I  examined  his  soles  and 
found  them  not  only  uncut,  but  barely  lined ; 
an  unhurt  condition  which  he  shortly  pro- 
ceeded to  demonstrate  practically  upon  the 
ladder. 

The  divine  shooting  was  no  sooner  over 
than  the  purification  rites  for  the  climbing 
of  the  ladder  began  ;  the  usual  thread  of 
prayer  knotted  with  finger-twists  being 
gone  through  with  upon  the  mats  in  front. 
Then,  that  there  might  be  no  mistake  in  the 
minds  of  the  populace  as  to  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  miracle,  the  Chief  of  God-Arts  as- 
cended the  secular  ladder,  which  still  leaned 
against  the  platform,  and  producing  sheets  of 
paper  from  his  sleeve,  cut  them  elaborately 
into  little  bits  upon  each  blade  in  succession, 
and  let  the  pieces  flutter  to  the  ground. 
When  he  had  finished  the  secular  ladder 
was  removed. 


MIRACLES.  79 

Nothing  now  led  up  to  the  goal  of  this 
acrobatic  pilgrimage  but  the  consecrated 
ladder  of  sword-blades.  Ad  astra per  aspera 
with  a  vengeance.  Nevertheless  the  Chief 
of  God-Arts,  calling  once  more  upon  the 
gods,  prepared  to  mount.  Girding  up  his 
loins  that  his  feet  might  not  catch  in  his 
tunic,  and  grasping  parts  of  the  upper  blades 
with  his  hands,  he  planted  one  foot  length- 
wise along  the  lowest  sword-edge,  and  then, 
drawing  himself  up  to  its  level,  placed  the 
other  similarly  on  the  blade  above.  Then 
he  rose  in  like  manner  to  the  third  rung,  and 
the  fourth,  and  so  on  heavenward.  He  did 
this  carefully  but  deliberately.  Evidently 
it  was  merely  a  question  of  foot-placing  with 
him. 

The  higher  he  got  the  less  he  seemed  to 
think  of  his  footing  and  the  more  of  effect, 
till  in  mid-ascent  he  was  minded  to  \.xy  a. 
religious  pas  sent.  Posing  on  one  foot,  he 
turned  deftly  to  face  the  crowd,  and  with 
the  appropriate  swing  kicked  out  with  the 
other  high  into  the  air,  flaunting  his  foot 
before  the  rapt  concourse  of  people  in  the 
most  approved  p7-wia  assohita  manner.  At 
this    unexpected    terpsichorean    touch    the 


80  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

populace  burst  into  applause  ;  and  the  Chief 
of  God-Arts,  turning  triumphantly  to  his 
climb,  continued  boldly  up  till  amid  a  gen- 
eral gasp  of  relief  from  the  crowd  below  he 
topped  the  last  rung  and  stepped  out  un- 
scathed upon  the  platform. 

Instantly  he  sank  in  prayer  before  the 
shrine.  While  he  was  at  his  devotions  the 
second  or  secular  ladder  was  brought  round 
to  another  side  of  the  scaffolding  and  tilted 
up  against  it,  for  what  purpose  did  not  at  first 
appear.  For,  his  prayer  finished,  the  Chief 
of  God-Arts  turned  again  to  the  ladder  of 
swords  and  exorcised  it  afresh.  Then  just 
as  he  was  about  to  set  foot  on  it  for  the 
descent,  as  we  thought,  he  turned  back  and 
to  our  astonishment  came  quietly  down  the 
secular  ladder  instead.  I  was  unavoidably 
reminded  of  the  devout  but  inconsequent 
lady  who  told  a  friend  that  "  She  thought 
she  should  go  to  New  York  on  Wednesday, 
D.  v.,"  but,  reflecting  a  moment,  "that  she 
should  come  back  on  Saturday  anyway." 

That  his  taking  to  the  back-stairs  for  the 
descent  was  not  due,  however,  to  any  in- 
ability on  his  part  to  come  down  by  the 
front  ones  was  shortly  evident  by  his  mak- 


MIRACLES.  8 1 

ing  soon  after  the  ascent  of  the  sword-blades 
nonchalantly  a  second  time.  The  truth  was, 
the  miracle  was  supposed  to  end  at  the  top, 
and  the  secular  ladder  to  be  as  invisible  a 
return  to  the  original  position  as  back-stairs 
generally. 

As  the  Chief  of  God-Arts  came  down  thus 
incognito  by  the  back  way,  a  second  priest 
made  ready  to  go  up  by  the  front  one.  His 
performance  was  largely  a  repetition  of  the 
first's  ;  except  that  before  starting  the  others 
weighted  him  with  some  boxes  full  of  charms, 
which  they  strapped  upon  his  back,  to  be 
consecrated  by  the  ascent  for  subsequent  dis- 
tribution. What  he  carried  made  apparently 
no  difference  to  him.  He  stepped  up  boldly 
and,  after  due  suspense  on  the  part  of  the 
populace,  stepped  out  safely  at  the  top. 

The  next  to  ascend  was  the  head  priest 
himself.  This  was  a  special  compliment  to 
us,  since  the  head  priest  no  longer  habitu- 
ally climbs,  being  well  on  in  years.  He 
got  up,  however,  with  impunity,  save  for  a 
slight  cut  upon  one  palm.  The  third  blade 
from  the  top  did  the  business.  We  had  no- 
ticed that  the  others  had  shied  at  it  as  if  it 
were   very  thin    ice,  and    when  it  came   to 


82  OCCULT  japan: 

the  older  skin  of  the  head  priest,  he  simply 
went  through.  This  mishap  conclusively 
showed,  the  priests  stated,  that  for  some  cause 
the  blade  was  impure.  They  were  after- 
wards able  to  prove  their  prognostication 
quite  right,  for  on  subsequent  investigation 
the  blade  was  found  to  have  recently  killed  a 
dog  and  not  to  have  been  properly  purified 
since. 

After  the  head  priest  all  the  others  went 
up  in  turn,  including  the  lay-brother ;  some 
of  them  several  times.  Planting  the  feet 
lengthwise  was  the  favorite  mode  of  pro- 
cedure, but  when  more  convenient  the  foot 
was  put  across  the  blade  instead.  To  one 
man  in  particular  it  seemed  to  make  small 
difference  how  he  trod.  He  jumped  jauntily 
up  as  if  the  blades  were  an  every-day  set 
of  rungs  and  he  in  a  hurry. 

Inasmuch  as  imitation  is  the  sincerest 
flattery,  the  priests  should  have  been  greatly 
pleased  when  at  this  point  Asa,  my  house- 
boy,  fired  to  emulation,  suddenly  pulled  off 
his  European  boots  and  socks,  rolled  up  his 
European  trousers,  and  presented  himself  as 
candidate  for  the  climb.  To  my  eye  the 
outlandishness  of  his  dress,  amid  the  archaic 


MIRACLES.  83 

costume  of   the  priests,   gave  him  at   once 
that  unsuitable  appearance   to   the  deed   so 
consecrated   to    the    supposed    countryman 
who  volunteers  at  the  circus.     I  should  cer- 
tainly have  had  my  doubts  about  the  gen- 
uineness of  his  inexperience  had  I  not  known 
him  for  my  own  "boy."     The  priests,  how- 
ever, received    him    most  kindly,  and   after 
sprinkling  him  with  a  shower  of  sparks  and 
properly  finger-twisting  over  him,  to  purify 
him  as  much  as  possible,  —  and  I  doubt  not 
he  needed  it,  —  showed  him  how  to  plant  his 
feet  on  the  rungs  and  started  him  up  the 
ladder.      To    my    surprise,  and   I  think  his 
own,  he  went  as  well  as  the  best  of  them. 
We  watched  him  with  some  vanity  and  more 
concern,  and  were  suddenly  electrified  when, 
half  way  to  the  top,  he  turned,  and,  with  a 
triumphant  smile,  made,  he  too,  the  approved 
corypliie  kick  high  into  the  air.     It  brought 
down  the  house  but  not  the  boy,  who  con- 
tinued on  successfully  till  at  last  he  stepped 
out  triumphantly  at  the  top.     He  was  obliged 
to  abbreviate  the  prayer,  from  not  knowing 
it,  and  then  he  too  came  down  the  regulation 
back-stairs. 

Exactly  what  happened  after  this  is  a  mys- 


84  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

tery.  Whether  in  his  exaltation  and  hurry 
to  get  back  to  his  place  he  forgot  the  pro- 
jecting tips  of  the  sword-blades,  or  whether 
in  coming  round  the  corner  he  collided  with 
one  of  the  priests,  was  not  clear,  for  the  first 
thing  we  knew,  the  boy  was  on  the  ground 
bleeding  pretty  freely  from  a  gash  in  the  top 
of  his  foot,  while  the  priests  did  their  best  to 
stanch  the  blood.  The  point  of  one  of  the 
swords  had  ripped  him  as  he  passed.  Never- 
theless, he  shortly  after  hobbled  to  the  ora- 
tory veranda  and  then,  while  a  proper  bandage 
was  being  fetched,  promptly  fainted.  When 
duly  swathed  he  was  dispatched  to  the  head 
priest's  house,  where  he  underwent  consider- 
able exorcism,  which,  as  he  informed  me  later, 
did  him  a  world  of  good.  Evidently  he  pos- 
sessed more  latent  piety  than  I  had  given 
him  credit  for. 

How  many  more  enthusiasts  might  have 
gone  up  the  divine  ladder  had  it  not  been  for 
this  regrettable  diversion  will  never  be 
known.  For  by  tacit  consent  the  episode 
closed  the  performance. 

It  by  no  means,  however,  ended  the  fes- 
tivity. Several  pleasing  adjuncts  to  this  had 
miraculously   appeared,  unperceived,  during 


MIRACLES.  85 

the  performance  of  the  miracle  itself.  A 
long  hne  of  booth  -  mats  had  suddenly- 
sprouted  mushroom-like  out  of  the  ground 
beyond  the  oratory  and  was  now  attempt- 
ing to  beguile  the  crowd  by  every  species  of 
toy  and  gimcrack,  visibly  connected  or  un- 
connected with  the  occasion.  There  were 
paper  masks  and  clay  foxes  and  baby  bows 
and  arrows  and  papier-mache  swords.  The 
last  caught  our  fancy,  as  being  suited  for 
presentation  to  some  of  the  urchins  who 
were  standing  interestedly  about,  and  who 
instantly  put  them  to  proper  use  by  making 
us  the  objects  of  pantomimic  attack  as  soon 
as  ever  our  backs  were  turned. 

Through  this  running  fire  we  made  our 
way  safely  to  the  head  priest's  house,  from 
which,  loaded  with  charms  consecrated  by 
the  miracle,  we  were  bundled  into  our  jinri- 
kisha  and  trundled  regretfully  toward  home. 
And  now  to  explain  the  miracle  :  — 
Doubtless  credulity  is  the  mother  of  mir- 
acles, but  doubtless,  also,  with  the  far  eastern 
family  of  them  a  pachydermatous  sole  step- 
fathers the  process.  For  most  of  them  are 
questions  of  cuticle.  Of  the  three  great 
Shinto  rites :  the  Ordeal  by  Boiling  Water  ; 


86  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

the  Walking  across  Live  Coals ;  and  the 
Climbing  upon  Sword-blades,  all  depend  upon 
it  for  easy  performance.  That  the  average 
Japanese  sole  is  equal  to  the  feat  without 
preliminary  purification  is  evident  from  the 
success  of  my  boy,  who  simply  picked  up  his 
skirts  and  walked. 

But  a  certain  other  physical  fact  enters 
this  last  miracle  not  commonly  appreciated, 
to  the  innocent  manipulation  of  which  by 
the  priests  the  miracle  is  due  ;  to  wit,  the 
immense  difference  in  cutting  power  between 
a  stationary  and  a  moving  blade.  Everybody 
is  aware  that  there  is  a  difference,  but  few 
people  realize  how  very  great  it  is.  If  you 
press  your  finger  upon  the  sharp  edge  of 
your  knife,  you  will  be  surprised  to  find  what 
a  pressure  you  can  put  upon  it  with  impu- 
nity ;  but  if,  ever  so  gently,  you  draw  the 
knife -blade  across  the  skin,  it  instantly 
sinks  in. 

The  principle  involved  is  the  principle  of 
the  wedge.  By  drawing  the  blade  along  in 
the  direction  of  its  edge  at  the  same  time 
that  you  press  down,  you  thin  its  angle  to 
any  desired  tenuity.  You  have  but  to  grad- 
uate the  horizontal  motion   to  the  vertical 


MIRACLES.  8y 

force.  As  the  angle  of  the  wedge  thus 
sharpens,  the  force  necessary  to  make  it 
enter  is  lessened  indefinitely.  We  unwit- 
tingly apply  this  principle  whenever  we  cut 
anything.  And  as  this  is  our  normal  state, 
we  forget  that  the  blade  is,  statically  used, 
not  as  cutting  as  we  think. 

Furthermore,  it  will  be  remembered  that, 
as  a  rule,  the  priests  took  heed  in  placing 
their  feet.  Most  of  them  were  careful  to 
minimize  the  impact. 

These  are  some  of  the  points  that  make 
miracle-working  possible ;  but  a  good  audi- 
ence is  equally  necessary.  A  sympathetic 
populace  renders  Japan  a  very  paradise  of 
miracles.  There  is  thus  a  twofold  reason 
for  a  miracle's  success  ;  a  thicker  skin  in 
the  priests,  and  a  thicker  skull  in  the  peo- 
ple. This  double  lack  of  penetration  makes 
it  easier  both  to  do,  and  to  be  done  by,  a 
miracle  than  it  would  be  elsewhere. 

Pondering  in  this  wise  upon  the  great 
advantages  for  successful  miracle-working 
possessed  by  priests  of  an  artistic,  pachyder- 
matous people  over  those  of  a  thin-skinned, 
scientific  one,  and  half  lamenting  the  lost 
grandeur  of  that  pious  past  whose  childish 


88  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

imaginings  loomed  so  large  and  life-like,  and 
vanish  so  sadly  before  our  bull's-eyes  of 
search,  we  were  rolled  through  the  broad 
quiet  twilight  of  tillage  toward  the  growing 
twinkle  of  the  town. 


To  give  a  full  account  of  Shinto  miracles, 
we  have  now  to  consider  quite  a  different 
class  of  them  ;  the  objective  ones,  pure  and 
simple.  The  nomenclature  is  not  mere 
matter  of  distinction.  For  the  first  kind 
are  brought  about  by  the  unintentional  but 
efficient  subjective  action  of  the  miracle- 
performer  himself ;  the  latter  take  place 
independently  of  him.  It  is  a  distinction 
unimportant  as  regards  the  things,  but  of 
vital  consequence  as  regards  the  people. 
For  though  it  be  open  to  the  looker-on  to 
doubt  whether  the  water  or  the  fire  in  the 
two  ordeals  above  be  rendered  any  the  less 
hot  by  having  parted  with  its  spirit,  it  is 
not  open  to  him  to  doubt  the  difference  of 
perception  of  that  heat  in  the  man's  normal 
and  abnormal  states  of  consciousness.  This 
question  is  quaintly  begged  by  believers,  by 
stating  that  the  god  withdraws  the  spirit  of 


MIRACLES.  89 

the  fire  or  permits  it  to  return  momentarily, 
according  to  the  character  of  the  tester. 
Skeptics  settle  the  whole  matter  off-hand 
by  denying  the  fact.  But  it  is  unscientific 
to  call  upon  a  noumenon  unnecessarily,  even 
of  an  annihilating  character.  Universal  ne- 
gation of  a  sense  distinction  implies  univer- 
sal charlatanry ;  and  men  are  both  too  sim- 
ple and  too  astute  for  that  to  be  possible. 
Charlatans  ape  but  they  do  not  originate. 
A  counterfeit  implies  a  genuine,  and  a  sham- 
mer something  to  sham. 

To  the  objective  miracles  there  is  no  psy- 
chic or  divine  side ;  they  are  due  to  undi- 
vined  psychical  principles  merely.  The 
Odojigokushiki,  or  "  The  Descent  of  the 
Thunder-God,"  is  one  of  these.  He  de- 
scends into  so  plebeian  a  thing  as  a  kettle 
of  steaming  rice,  the  rice  being  afterward  of- 
fered in  banquet  to  the  temple  deities.  For 
to  have  rice  taste  like  thunder  is  said  to  be 
peculiarly  pleasing  to  the  gods.  The  manner 
of  working  this  miracle  is  as  follows  :  — 

Upon  a  small  urn  was  placed  a  kettle  and 
upon  the  kettle  a  rice  steamer,  the  hd  so 
set  on  as  to  leave  a  slit  on  one  side.  A 
young   acolyte  then  appeared  in   the   usual 


90  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

pilgrimage  robe,  his  hair  dank  from  the  bath 
and  his  whole  person  shivering  with  cold, 
and,  striking  a  spark  from  some  flint  and 
steel,  proceeded  to  light  the  fire  and  then  to 
encourage  its  combustion  by  the  usual  fin- 
ger-twisting, scattering  of  salt,  prayer,  strik- 
ing of  sparks,  and  brandishing  of  \\\q.  goJiei- 
wand. 

After  the  exorcism  was  well  under  way, 
the  head  priest  came  forward  and  sat  down 
before  the  kettle  in  order  to  perfect  the  rite, 
the  acolyte  falling  back  to  the  part  of  mute. 
In  keeping  with  the  good  man's  extreme 
purity,  his  finishing  touches  were  very  sim- 
ple. They  consisted  of  a  soundless  whistle 
which  he  kept  up  through  his  pursed  lips 
and  of  certain  archaic  finger  -  charms  sym- 
bolic of  pulling  some  very  heavy  substance 
toward  him.  Then,  still  mutely  whistling,  he 
sat  perfectly  still  and  watched. 

He  had  not  long  to  wait.  Suddenly  a  roar 
rose  out  of  the  body  of  the  kettle,  and  at 
almost  the  same  instant  the  priest's  own 
body  began  to  sway  back  and  forth.  Steam 
followed  the  roar ;  then,  after  a  couple  of  sec- 
onds, the  roar  ceased.  We  did  not  have  to 
be  told  that  it  was  the  voice  of  the  Thunder- 


MIRACLES.  91 

God  ;  and  when  it  ceased  we  knew  the  god 
had  gone. 

Press  of  business  the  priest  gave  as  excuse 
for  the  shortness  of  the  divine  visit.  But 
indeed  we  were  very  fortunate,  it  seemed, 
in  getting  him  to  come  at  all,  for  often 
the  deity  does  not  deign  to  descend,  even  for 
a  moment,  being  otherwise  occupied.  Be- 
sides, if  every  accessory  be  not  perfectly  pure 
he  refuses  to  come  on  conscientious  grounds. 

The  priest  averred  that  at  the  moment  of 
possession  he  always  felt  a  violent  punch  in 
his  stomach.  He  also  said  that  the  swaying 
of  his  body  was  to  induce  by  symbolic  trac- 
tion the  presence  of  the  god,  though  it  had 
seemed  a  trifle  late  for  the  purpose.  Doubt- 
less the  god  can  be  so  constrained,  but  doubt- 
less, also,  the  kettle  is  for  something  in  the 
subsequent  conversation.  The  slit- in  its  lid 
has  been  suggested  as  capable  of  explaining 
the  miracle,  could  it  only  talk  as  well  as  it 
can  roar. 

VI. 

We  now  come  to  a  miracle  which  might 
possibly  be  turned  to  practical  account.  It  is 
perhaps  the  most  wonderful  of  the  objective 
ones.     It  consists  in  bringing  down  fire  from 


92  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

heaven  by  simple  incantation.  The  spark 
thus  obtained  may  be  used  to  light  any- 
thing, the  prehistoric  two  sticks  preferably 
for  purposes  of  warmth  At  the  time  I  was 
shown  this  miracle,  I  was  not  in  need  of 
caloric,  —  it  was  seventy-five  degrees  Fahren- 
heit in  the  shade,  —  so  I  was  permitted  to 
witness  its  working  upon  the  comparatively 
vile  body  of  my  own  freshly  filled,  unlighted 
pipe. 

This  is  a  very  difficult  miracle.  Indeed, 
even  when  it  succeeds  it  is  scarcely  an  eco- 
nomical method  of  firing  one's  tobacco  day- 
dreams, so  much  time  and  trouble  does  it 
cost.  But  to  epicureans  who  hunt  new  sen- 
sations and  to  whom  the  one  meaning  of  the 
word  "dear"  is  synonymous  with  the  other, 
it  may  safely  be  recommended.  For  it  is  not 
likely  as  yet,  if  I  may  argue  from  my  own 
experience,  to  be  generally  taken  up. 

To  insure  success  in  the  city,  the  day 
should  be  sunshiny.  Among  the  mountains 
even  a  cloudy  day  will  do,  so  I  am  informed. 
I  cannot  speak  confidently  on  this  latter  point, 
because  my  own  investigations  were  confined 
to  the  ridge-pole  of  my  house  in  town,  and  to 
the  turf  immediately  below  it. 


MIRACLES.  "93 

The  priest  who  performed  the  miracle  be- 
gan by  douching  himself  in  the  bathroom, 
from  which,  between  the  plumps  of  water, 
issued  uncouth  sounds,  sputterings  of  for- 
mulae and  grunts  as  he  finger-twisted.  He 
emerged  with  nothing  on  but  a  blue  pocket- 
handkerchief  for  loin-cloth,  the  small  blue 
and  white  rag  with  which  the  Japanese  dab 
themselves  in  lieu  of  towel.  In  this  attire 
he  sallied  forth  into  the  garden,  and  select- 
ing the  side  of  a  hill  as  a  propitious  spot, 
squatted  in  the  ordinary  Japanese  posture  on 
its  slope. 

Cradling  the  pipe  between  his  hands,  he 
prayed  over  it  exhaustively.  Then  he  put 
it,  tilted  toward  the  sun,  in  front  of  him,  and 
exorcised  it  very  energetically  by  finger- 
charms,  one  of  which  strikingly  resembled 
an  imaginary  burning-glass.  There  was,  how- 
ever, nothing  between  his  fingers  but  air. 
He  had  spent  fifteen  minutes  thus  in  digital 
contortions,  when  he  suddenly  stopped,  dis- 
tressed, and,  complaining  that  the  ants  tickled 
him  by  promenading  over  his  bare  skin,  said 
he  thought  he  would  go  upon  the  roof.  So 
a  ladder  was  brought  and  tilted  against  the 
eaves,  and  up  it  he  mounted  to  the  tiles,  and 


94  OCCULT  japan: 

thence  by  easy  slopes  to  the  ridge-pole.  In 
this  conspicuous  yet  solitary  position  he  con- 
tinued the  incantation.  Part  of  the  time  I 
sat  beside  him  on  the  roof ;  part  of  the  time 
below  upon  the  ground,  looking  intently  up 
into  heaven  for  the  advent  of  the  god. 

Three  quarters  of  an  hour  passed  thus  in 
momentary  expectation  of  his  descent,  but 
nothing  happened.  At  last,  much  chagrined, 
the  priest  informed  us  from  the  ridge-pole 
that  it  was  of  no  use  that  day,  and  came 
down ;  but  he  signified  his  intention  of  re- 
peating the  rite  till  he  succeeded,  and,  with 
this  pious  resolve,  left. 

True  to  his  word,  he  was  there  again  two 
days  later,  and  remembering  poignantly  the 
disturbing  ants,  he  decided  to  ascend  at  once 
to  the  ridge-pole.  Before  he  did  so,  I  exam- 
ined him  to  a  certain  extent,  although  he 
had  on  only  one  of  my  own  very  smallest 
towels.  Then  two  of  us  took  post  in  the  gar- 
den commanding  the  ridge-pole,  and  watched 
him  for  the  better  part  of  an  hour  from  our 
vantage  points.  In  another  part  of  the  gar- 
den had  been  set  the  lunch  table,  also  com- 
manding the  ridge-pole,  for  the  expected 
divine  visit  was  sublimely  ill-timed,  and  we 


MIRACLES.  95 

hoped  thus,  if  necessary,  to  be  able  to  com- 
bine god  and  mammon.  We  put  the  evil 
hour  off  as  long  as  possible,  till  at  last  nature 
could  wait  no  longer,  and  we  decided  to  sit 
down  to  our  delayed  repast,  firmly  purposing 
to  keep  one  eye  constantly  on  the  exorcist. 
We  did  so  religiously  till  we  forgot  him  a 
moment  for  the  vol-aii-vent.  Suddenly  the 
man  on  the  roof  uttered  a  cry,  went  into  inci- 
pient convulsions,  and  threw  the  pipe  off 
into  the  garden,  lighted.  We  instantly  re- 
pented our  forgetfulness  of  the  god,  and 
cursed  our  love  of  mammon.  But  too  late, 
as  the  miracle  had  been  wrought. 

Exactly  how  the  miracle  was  managed,  I 
am  unable  to  guess.  The  man  certainly  had 
scant  means  of  concealment  about  his  bare 
person.  Naturally,  however,  we  were  not 
satisfied,  and  he  professed  himself  willing  to 
repeat  the  act.  He  tried  the  trick  after  this 
time  and  time  again,  but  never  succeeded 
more.  So  there  this  miracle  remains,  very 
much  in  the  air.  But  I  should  say  that  it 
is  said  to  be  very  commonly  done  ;  a  more 
common  thing,  indeed,  in  Japan,  than  I  can 
conceive  burning-glasses  to  be. 

To  make  the  catalogue  complete,  I  ought 


96  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

to  mention  what,  spiritually  viewed,  are  orna- 
mental miracles  —  such  as  killing  snakes  and 
bringing  them  to  life  again,  rooting  burglars 
to  the  spot,  arresting  the  attempts  of  assas- 
sins in  the  act,  and  defending  one's  self 
against  discourteous  dogs.  But  all  such  acts 
need  not  be  dwelt  upon  at  length,  as  they 
are  very  simple  affairs  to  the  truly  good, 
and,  like  some  scientific  inventions,  too  ex- 
pensive for  general  use. 


INCARNATIONS. 


FTER  the  miracles,  or  possessions  of 
things,   follow,   in  order  of  esoteric 
ascension,  the  incarnations,  or  pos- 
sessions of  people. 

The  miracles,  as  I  have  hinted,  are  per- 
formed largely  with  an  eye,  at  least  one  eye, 
to  the  public.  To  drench  one's  self  with 
scalding  water  or  to  saunter  unconcernedly 
across  several  yards  of  scorching  coals  are 
not  in  themselves  feats  that  lead  particularly 
to  heaven,  difficult  as  they  may  be  to  do. 
Esoterically  regarded,  they  are  rather  tests 
of  the  proficiency  already  attained  in  the 
Way  of  the  Gods  than  portions  of  that  way 
needing  actually  to  be  traversed.  The  real 
burning  question  is  whether  the  believer  be 
pure  enough  to  perform  them  pleasurably. 
To  establish  such  capability  to  one's  own  sat- 
isfaction in  the  first  place,  and  to  the  wonder 


98  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

of  an  open-mouthed  multitude  in  the  second, 
are  the  objects  the  pious  promoters  have  in 
view. 

Not  so  the  incarnations.  They  too,  in- 
deed, serve  a  double  purpose.  But  whereas 
they  are,  like  the  miracles,  measures  of  the 
value  of  the  purity  of  the  man,  they  are  also 
practical  mediums  of  exchange  between  the 
human  spirit  and  the  divine.  Foregone  for 
directly  profitable  ends,  loss  of  self  is  the 
necessary  price  of  an  instant  part  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

Perhaps  the  most  startling  thing  about 
these  Japanese  divine  possessions  is  their 
number ;  unless  it  be  that  being  so  numer- 
ous they  should  have  remained  so  long  un- 
known. But  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
what  no  one  is  interested  to  reveal  may 
stay  a  long  while  hid.  For,  with  quite  An- 
glican etiquette,  the  Japanese  never  thought 
to  introduce  their  divine  guests  and  their 
foreign  ones  to  each  other.  Once  intro- 
duced, the  two  must  have  met  at  every  turn. 
Indeed,  the  visitants  from  the  spirit-world 
remind  one  of  those  ghost-like  forms  of  ' 
clever  cartoonists,  latent  in  the  outlines  of 
more  familiar  shapes,   till,  by  some   chance 


^INCARNATIONS.  99 

'    divined,  they  start  to  view,  to  remain  ever 
after  the   most   conspicuous   things  in   the 

picture. 

Thoroughly  religious,  the  possessions  are 
not  in  the  least  hierarchic.  In  theory 
esoteric  enough,  in  practice  they  are,  in  the 
older  sense  of  that  word,  profane.  For  god- 
possession  is  no  perquisite  of  the  priests.  It 
is  open  to  all  the  sufficiently  pure.  The 
reason  for  this  lack  of  exclusiveness  is  to  be 
sought  in  the  essentially  every-day  family 
character  of  Shinto.  Everybody  is  a  de- 
scendant of  the  gods,  and  therefore  intrinsi- 
cally no  less  holy  than  his  neighbor.  Indeed, 
if  ease  of  intercourse  be  any  proof  of  kin- 
ship, the  Japanese  people  certainly  make 
good  their  claim  to  divine  descent.  For 
they  pass  in  and  out  of  the  world  beyond 
as  if  it  were  part  of  this  world  below. 

Purity  is  the  one  prerequisite  to  divine 
possession,  and  though  to  acquire  sufficient 
purity  be  an  art,  it  is  an  art  patent  rather  in 
the  older  unindividualized  sense  of  the  w^ord. 
Any  one  who  is  pure  may  give  lodgment  to 
a  god,  just  as  any  plutocrat  may  entertain 
modern  royalty.  The  gods,  like  latter  day 
princes,  are  no  respecters  of  persons.     They 


lOO  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

condescend  to  come  wherever  due  prepa- 
ration is  made  for  them..  It  is  the  host's 
house,  not  the  host  that  they  visit  ;  the 
presence  of  the  host  himself  being  graciously 
dispensed  with.  The  man's  mind  must  have 
been  vacated  of  all  meaner  lodgers,  includ- 
ing himself,  before  the  god  will  deign  to 
habit  it,  but  who  the  man  is,  is  immaterial. 
Such  humble  folk  as  barbers  and  fishmongers 
are  among  the  most  favored  entertainers  of 
divinity. 

But  though  the  social  standing  of  the  man 
be  immaterial,  the  social  standing  of  the 
god,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  most  material 
point  in  the  matter.  For  mere  association 
with  the  supernatural  is  not  in  Japan  neces- 
sarily a  question  of  piety  or  even  of  impiety. 
Often  it  is  pure  accident.  To  become  pos- 
sessed by  a  devil,  of  which  bewitchment  by  a 
fox  is  the  commonest  form,  may  be  so  purely 
an  act  of  the  devil  that  no  blame  beyond  care- 
lessness attaches  to  the  unfortunate  victim. 
Religion  claims  no  monopoly  of  intercourse 
with  the  unseen.  What  religion  does  claim 
is  the  ability  to  admit  one  to  the  very  best 
heavenly  society.  For,  to  say  nothing  of 
mere  animal  spirits,  there  are  all  grades  in 


INCARNA  TIONS.  I O I 

gods,  good  gods  and  bad  gods,  great  gods 
and  little  ones.  Access  to  the  most  desir- 
able divinities  is  the  privilege  to  which  the 
church  holds  the  keys. 

Capability  to  commune  is  thus  in  a  general 
way  endemic,  much  as  salvation  is  held  to  be 
in  some  places,  or  infant  damnation  in  others. 
And  to  Japanese  thought  the  gods  are  very 
close  at  hand.  Unsuspected  as  such  pres- 
ence be  by  foreigners,  in  the  people's  eyes 
the  gods  are  constantly  visiting  their  temples 
and  other  favorite  spots,  in  a  most  ubiqui- 
tous manner.  Indeed,  after  introduction  to 
their  Augustnesses,  one  is  tempted  to  in- 
clude them  in  the  census  and  to  consider 
the  population  of  Japan  as  composed  of 
natives,  globe-trotters,  and  gods. 

The  gods  resemble  the  globe-trotters  in 
this,  that  both  are  a  source  of  profit  to  the 
people.  For  finding  themselves  in  communi- 
cation with  the  superhuman,  the  Japanese 
early  turned  the  intimacy  to  practical  ac- 
count. They  importuned  these  their  rela- 
tives for  that  of  which  men  stand  most  in 
need,  the  curing  of  disease.  Out  of  this 
arose  a  national  school  of  divinopathy. 

Civilized  cousins  of  the  medicine-men  of 


102  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

North  America,  of  the  shamans  of  savage 
tribes  the  world  over,  and  of  Christian  sci- 
entists generally,  the  Japanese  practitioners 
differ  from  most  members  of  the  profession 
in  the  widespread  popular  character  of  their 
craft.  For  though  all  the  practitioners  are 
religious  men,  they  are  by  no  means  all 
priests.  Except  for  a  difference  in  degree, 
the  distinction  between  the  priests  who 
practice  and  the  practicing  lay  brethren  lies 
in  the  professional  or  avocational  character 
of  their  performance.  The  priests,  of  course, 
have  no  other  business  than  to  bfe  pious, 
and  to  be  temporarily  a  god  is  an  easy  exten- 
sion to  being  perpetually  godlike.  The  lay 
brethren,  on  the  other  hand,  practice  such 
possession  only  as  an  outside  calling,  each 
having  his  more  mundane  trade  to  boot.  The 
above-mentioned  barber,  for  example,  besides 
industriously  shaving  man,  woman,  and  child, 
—  this  detail  of  the  toilet  being  universally 
indulged  in,  in  Japan,  — was  able  to  carry  on 
a  very  lucrative  business  as  a  popular  other- 
world  physician.  But  he  made  no  analogue 
of  the  European  barber  -  surgeon  of  times 
gone  by.  No  particular  pursuit  has  privi- 
lege of  the  divine  practice,  barbers  being  no 


IXCARNATIONS.  IO3 

better  than  other  folk  in  the  eyes  of  the  god. 
A  divinopathist's  earthly  trade  may  be  any- 
thing under  heaven.  Plastering  and  clerk- 
ing in  a  wine-shop  are  among  the  latest 
specimen  occupations  I  have  met  with  of 
men  thus  engaged  in  business  both  with 
this  world  and  the  next. 

These  doctors  of  divinity  receive  regular 
diplomas,  without  which  they  are  not  allowed 
to  practice.  Nominally  they  are  not  allowed 
to  practice  with  them,  for  in  the  certificates 
no  mention  is  made  of  the  special  object 
for  which  the  certificates  are  issued,  permis- 
sion being  granted  merely  to  perform  prayer, 
which  comprehensive  phrase  covers  a  multi- 
tude of  saintly  acts. 

The  reason  the  certificates  read  so  beauti- 
fully vague  is  not  that  religion  conceives  her 
esoteric  cults  to  be  profoundly  secret,  but 
that  the  government  imagines  them  to  be 
barbarous  because  not  in  keeping  with  foreign 
manners  and  customs.  At  the  same  time, 
the  paternal  powers-that-be  dare  not  pro- 
scribe them.  The  fact  is,  they  are  both  too 
Japanese  to  be  countenanced  and  too  Jap- 
anese to  be  suppressed  ;  so  the  authorities 
wink  at  their  practice.     The  Japanese  gov- 


104  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

ernment  is,  in  more  matters  than  this  one,  in 
much  the  same  awkward  state  of  mind  as  the 
Irish  legislator,  who  declared  himself  to  be 
"for  the  bill  and  agin  its  enforcement." 

Divinopathy  has  one  great  advantage  over 
other  schools  of  medicine  :  by  the  very  prep- 
aration for  healing  others  the  physician  heals 
himself.  For  mere  qualification  to  be  a  prac- 
titioner is  itself  a  preventive  to  earthly  ills  ; 
much  as  vaccination  precludes  small-pox.  The 
only  question  might  be  whether  the  cure  be 
not  worse  than  the  complaint.  After  an 
account  of  the  rigid  self-discipline  to  be 
undergone  before  a  diploma  be  possible,  and 
then  largely  kept  up  for  it  to  continue 
in  force,  I  think  it  will  seem  uncommonly 
open  to  the  doubt.  Yet  there  are  plenty  of 
men  who  lead  this  life  of  daily  hardship  and 
renunciation  for  the  explicit  purpose  of  en- 
joying the  life  they  renounce ;  just  as  many 
an  invalid  will  give  up  all  that  makes  life 
worth  living  for  the  sake  of  living  the  unde- 
sirable residue  longer. 

But  if  the  self-martyrdom  be  duly  per- 
formed, the  god  practically  always  descends 
on  application,  and  vouchsafes  his  opinion  as 
to  the  cure  of  the  complaint.     Of  course  his 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 05 

prescriptions  are  religiously  followed,  and  if 
report  speak  truth,  with  an  unusually  large 
percentage  of  success.  Any  and  all  diseases 
are  thus  cured  on  presentation,  subject  only 
to  the  willingness  of  the  god.  This  proviso 
satisfactorily  explains  the  few  unfortunate 
failures. 

Divine  possession  is  not  limited  in  its 
applications  to  the  curing  of  disease.  Natu- 
rally the  divine  opinion  is  quite  as  valuable 
on  other  subjects  as  on  medicine,  and  is  con- 
sequently quite  as  much  in  demand.  From 
the  nature  of  the  gods  themselves  to  the 
weather  of  the  coming  month,  anything  a 
man  may  w'ant  to  know  is  thus  inquired 
about  of  deity.  Due  care  only  must  be 
exercised  to  grade  the  importance  of  the 
question  to  the  importance  of  the  gods.  For 
gods  of  high  rank  stand  as  much  on  their 
dignity  as  men  both  in  the  matter  of  coming 
and  in  the  matter  of  talking  after  they  have 
come.  I  remember  once  a  most  superior 
person,  as  gods  go,  who  grew  very  angry 
because  I  asked  him  a  question  he  deemed 
it  beneath  him  to  answer,  although  he  had 
descended  on  purpose  to  impart  information, 
and  told  me,  quite  up  and  down,  to  go  to  the 


I06  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

god  of  agriculture  (Inari-sama)  for  trivialities 
of  the  kind. 

The  character  of  the  company  sought  is 
what  renders  excessive  self-mortification  ne- 
cessary. It  is  only  to  the  very  best  heavenly 
society  that  introductions  are  so  hard  to  get. 
Inferior  gods  permit  intimacy  on  much  easier 
terms.  Ordinary  icJiiko,  or  trance-diviners, 
for  instance,  whose  deities  rank  much  lower, 
go  through  a  preparation  which  is  mild  in 
comparison. 

II. 

The  one  thing  needful  to  insure  divine 
possession  is  purity.  If  you  are  pure,  that 
is,  blank  enough,  you  can  easily  give  habita- 
tion to  a  god.  Now  some  men  are  born 
blanker  than  others,  but  none  are  by  nature 
quite  blank  enough  for  religious  purposes, 
though  secularly  they  often  seem  so.  Addi- 
tional vacuity  must  somehow  be  acquired, 
the  amount  varying  not  only  with  the  man, 
but  with  the  rank  of  the  god  by  whom  he 
desires  to  be  possessed.  To  reach  this  state 
of  inanity  is  the   object    of   the    austerities 

In   the    days    of    Ry5bu  there  were  two 


INCARNA  TIONS.  I O/ 

classes  of  men  who  indulged  in  mortification 
of  the  flesh  to  the  attainment  of  thus  losing 
themselves, — gyoja  snd  skiiija.  With  pure 
Shint5,  that  is,  the  present  resurrection  of 
the  past  pure  faith,  these  names  are  natu- 
rally not  popular,  inasmuch  as  they  savor  of 
the  millennial  lapse  from  orthodoxy.  But 
the  course  in  practical  piety  pursued  by  the 
would-be  pure,  having  itself  always  been  de 
rigueur,  remains  still  substantially  the  same. 

Gyoja,  translated,  means  "a  man  of  auster- 
ities;" and  heaven  is  witness  that  he  is. 
Short  of  actual  martyrdom,  I  can  imagine  few 
thornier  paths  to  perfection.  He  would  seem 
to  need  a  cast-iron  constitution  to  stand  the 
strain  he  cheerfully  puts  upon  it.  Even  to  be 
a  sJiinja  necessitates  a  regimen  that  strikes 
the  unregenerate  with  awe.  Though  sJihija 
means  simply  "a  believer,"  the  amount  of 
works  this  simple  believer  must  perform  be- 
fore his  faith  is  enough  to  be  accepted  would 
appall  most  people. 

The  curriculum  has  this  in  common  with 
more  secular  ones,  that  whoso  goes  in  at  the 
one  end  usually  comes  out  at  the  other,  un- 
less protracted  austerity  fall  upon  him  ;  in 
which  case  he  quits  in  the  middle.     The  fact 


I08  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

that  so  many  graduate  shows  that  no  ex- 
traordinary capacity  is  required  to  do  so ;  in- 
deed, it  is  the  capacity  for  incapacity  that  is 
necessary.  Plodding  perseverance  is  what 
wins  the  day.  For  the  course  is  terrifically 
arduous  and  terribly  long. 

To  the  purification  of  the  spirit,  the  road 
lies  through  the  cleansing  of  the  body.  To 
this  end  the  two  chief  exercises  are  washing 
{suigyo)  and  fasting  {danjiki).  Unlimited 
bathing,  with  most  limited  meals ;  such  is 
the  backbone  of  the  regimen.  The  external 
treatment,  being  the  more  important  of  the 
two,  claims  notice  first. 

Washing  is  the  most  obvious  kind  of  puri- 
fication the  world  over.  Cleanliness,  we  say, 
is  next  to  godliness  ;  though  at  times  in  indi- 
vidual specimens  the  two  would  seem  not  to 
have  made  each  other's  acquaintance.  But 
in  Japan  cleanliness  very  nearly  is  godliness. 
This  charming  compatibility  is  due  possibly 
to  the  godliness  being  less,  but  certainly 
chiefly  to  the  cleanliness  being  more. 

Even  secularly  the  Japanese  are  super- 
naturally  cleanly.  Every  day  of  their  lives 
forty  millions  of  folk  parboil  like  one.  Nor 
do  they  hurry  themselves  in  the  act.     The 


INC  A  RNA  TIONS.  1 09 

nation  spends  an  inordinate  amount  of  time 
in  the  national  tub ;  as  becomes  pecuniarily 
apparent  when  you  hire  a  man  by  the  day,  or, 
stranger  yet,  by  the  job.  You  are  tempted 
at  times  to  suppose  your  toiler  continuously 
either  tubbing  or  teaing.  Doubtless  such 
totality  is  due  to  emotional  exaggeration  on 
your  part,  but  it  is  beyond  prejudice  that  he 
soaks  in  his  tub  a  good  working  minority  of 
his  time. 

When  it  comes  to  religious  matters,  it 
would  seem  as  if  this  estimable  quality  were 
carried  to  its  inevitable  defect.  For,  from  a 
pardonable  pastime,  bathing  here  becomes  an 
all-engrossing  pursuit.  The  would-be  devotee 
spends  his  waking  life  at  little  else,  and  he 
sleeps  less  than  most  men  at  that.  Not  only 
is  it  his  bounden  duty  to  bathe  six  appointed 
times  in  every  twenty-four  hours,  but  he 
should  also  bathe  as  often  as  he  may  be- 
tween. The  more  he  bathes  the  better  he 
becomes. 

Now,  if  he  simply  soaked  in  a  hot  water 
tub  as  his  profane  friends  do,  this  might  be 
merely  the  ecstatic  height  of  dissipation. 
But  he  does  nothing  of  the  kind.  No  gentle 
parboiling  is  his  portion ;    perpetual  goose- 


no  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

flesh  is  his  lot.  For  in  his  case  no  such 
amelioration  of  nature  is  allowed.  Whatever 
the  season  of  the  year,  his  ablutions  must  be 
made  in  water  of  untempered  temperature, 
fresh  from  the  spring ;  in  the  depth  of  win- 
ter a  thing  of  cold  comfort  indeed.  It  then 
goes  by  the  expressive  name  of  kmigyo,  or 
the  cold  austerity.  What  is  more,  he  takes 
this  uncongenial  application  in  the  mode  to 
produce  the  most  poignant  effect  —  with  the 
shock  of  a  shower-bath. 

Esoterically  there  are  grades  in  the  clean- 
sing capabilities  of  shower-baths.  For  him 
who  would  reach  the  height  of  holiness  the 
correct  thing  is  to  walk  under  a  waterfall 
and  be  soused.  This  luxury  is,  of  course, 
only  to  be  had  in  the  hills.  In  default  of 
a  waterfall,  a  douche  from  a  dipper  will  do. 
But  on  religious  grounds  it  is  not  to  be  rec- 
ommended. 

Man-made  methods  are  imperative  in  town 
owing  to  the  lack  of  natural  ones,  which  is 
one  reason  why  the  hills  are  the  proper 
habitat  for  novitiates  into  the  higher  life.  In 
the  good  old  days  such  habitat  was  a  neces- 
sity, not  that  men  were  less  pure  then,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  that  they  strove  to  become 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 1 1 

yet  purer,  so  gydja  aver  ;  pure  Shint5  says  it 
was  because  they  had  then  lapsed  from  or- 
thodoxy. However  that  be,  when  gydja  were 
gydja  they  were  anchorites  pure  and  simple. 
They  dwelt  as  hermits  among  the  hills,  seeing 
no  man  by  the  space  of  three  years,  and  re- 
ducing themselves  as  nearly  as  might  be  to  a 
state  of  nature  ;  of  the  inoffensive  kind,  for, 
as  their  diet  will  show,  they  belonged  rather 
to  the  herbivorous  than  to  the  carnivorous 
order  of  wild  animal.  After  they  had  be- 
come quite  detached  from  all  that  distin- 
guishes humanity,  they  returned  to  the  world 
to  live  hermitically  in  the  midst  of  it,  repair- 
ing again  at  suitable  seasons  to  mountaineer- 
ing meditation.  Such  were  the  men  who 
opened,  as  the  consecrated  phrase  is,  On- 
take,  that  is,  who  first  succeeded  in  reaching 
its  sacred  summit.  There  are  still  a  few  of 
these  estimable  creatures  at  large  in  the  hills, 
I  have  myself  met  some  of  them,  there  and 
elsewhere,  after  their  return  to  society,  and 
have  gazed  with  interest  at  caves  pointed  out 
to  me  which  they  had  once  inhabited. 

But  gydja  generally  have  deteriorated  with 
the  world  at  large.  They  are  far  from  being 
what  they  were,  so  far  that  a  conscientious 


112  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

man  hardly  feels  that  he  has  the  right  to  call 
himself  a  gydja  at  all,  as  one  of  the  class 
humbly  informed  me.  He  blushed,  he  said, 
when  he  thought  of  the  austerities  of  the 
olden  time.  A  modern  gydja  was  little  more 
austere  than  a  shinja  who  made  his  summer 
pilgrimages  when  he  could.  This  was  per- 
haps a  gloomy  view  to  take  of  the  situation, 
for  one  usually  finds  the  past  not  so  superior 
to  the  present  as  report  represents.  But 
even  at  its  worst,  the  deterioration  would 
seem  a  case  only  for  professional  sympathy. 
For  whatever  the  regimen  may  have  been, 
there  is  at  all  events  enough  severity  left  it 
to  satisfy  any  decent  desire  for  self-martyr- 
dom. 

That  mountains  should  be  deemed  pecul- 
iarly good  points  for  entering  another  world 
is  not  unnatural.  With  inclines  incapable  of 
cultivation,  they  do  not  conduce  to  socia- 
bility, but  enable  the  dweller  there  the  more 
effectively  to  meditate  himself  into  inanity. 
Unjogged  by  suggestion,  the  average  mind 
lapses  into  a  comatose  condition,  till  the  man 
comes  eventually  to  exist  upon  the  border- 
land of  trance.  But  as  it  is  not  convenient 
for  everybody  to  retire  to  the   hills  for  three 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 1 3 

years  at  a  time,  even  for  this  sublime  pur- 
pose, it  has  been  found  possible  to  combine 
purity  enough  for  vacuity  with  a  tolerably 
secular  existence.  The  gyo  in  the  two  cases 
differ  only  as  a  state  of  nature  differs  from 
a  condition  of  civilization. 

This  brings  us  back  again  to  the  bath, 
for  we  are  not  half  through  with  it  yet.  If 
the  neophyte  be  not  taking  the  waterfall  in 
all  simplicity  on  his  head,  he  is  outdoing 
Diogenes  by  living  not  simply  in  his  tub,  but 
tubbing.  A  cold  water  douche  begins  the 
day,  another  marks  its  meridian,  and  a  third 
brings  it  to  a  close.  But  the  day  does  not 
bring  the  douche  to  a  close.  Just  before 
turning  in  the  neophyte  must  take  another 
dip,  after  which  it  might  indeed  be  thought 
that  he  should  sleep  in  peace.  But  such 
would  savor  of  pandering  to  the  flesh.  The 
most  vital  ablution  of  all,  therefore,  the  cnix 
piirificationis,  occurs  at  two  A.  m.  {yatsiigyo). 
At  this  unearthly  hour  the  poor  creature 
must  wake  himself  up,  stagger  half  asleep 
to  the  waterfall  or  bathroom,  souse  himself 
with  a  dipper  or  be  soused  by  the  fall,  while 
his  teeth  chatter  a  prayer  and  his  fingers 
twist   themselves    into    cabalistic   knots,   he 


114  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

himself  shivering  the  while  from  top  to  toe  ; 
then,  brought  up  standing  in  this  manner, 
try  if  he  may  to  sleep  again.  Even  should 
he  succeed,  his  doze  may  not  be  for  long, 
for  with  the  dawn  he  must  douche  again, 
the  sunrise  austerity  {/li-no-de-gyo). 

Unearthly  the  midnight  hour  may  ad- 
visedly be  called,  for  it  is  for  precisely  such 
attribute  that  the  time  is  chosen.  At  that 
dead  of  night,  when  every  sound  is  hushed, 
and  even  the  plants,  they  say,  lie  locked  in 
sleep,  the  gods  can  the  better  hear.  And 
this,  oddly  enough,  in  spite  of  their  being 
very  much  engaged  with  their  own  spatter- 
ings  and  sputterings,  for  the  gods  them- 
selves are  then  taking  their  baths,  —  the 
ofods  of  the  mountains  under  their  water- 
falls,  and  the  gods  of  the  plain  in  the  riv- 
ers thereof.  In  Japan,  even  the  gods  wash 
and  are  clean,  and,  like  their  human  poor 
relations,  apparently  make  of  the  bath  a  time 
of  social  reunion  and  merriment.  They  hear, 
nevertheless,  and  reward  the  bather  accord- 
ingly. 

With  a  shinja  this  nocturnal  exercise  is 
optional.  It  all  depends  upon  how  pure  he 
intends  to  become.     Of  course  it  is  a  great 


INCARNATIONS.  II5 

deal  better  to  be  thorough,  and  not  for  the 
sake  of  the  flesh  to  shirk  what  shall  ethere- 
alize  the  soul.  A  little  more  bathing  can 
do  no  harm  —  unless  it  kill,  which  is  beside 
the  point. 

Extras,  that  is  baths  at  odd  hours,  are  to 
be  taken  ad  libitum  by  all.  The  rule  is : 
When  in  doubt,  douche. 

This  extreme  lavatory  exercise  lasts  indefi- 
nitely—  as  long  as  the  devotee  can  stand 
it.  And  in  diminishing  doses  it  is  kept  up 
through  life.  To  those  who  perform  it  in  all 
its  rigor  under  the  waterfalls  in  the  hills, 
the  gods  graciously  show  signs  of  accepted 
favor.  For  round  the  head  of  the  holy,  as 
he  stands  beneath  the  fall,  the  sunlight  glan- 
cing through  the  spray  rims  a  halo  which  all 
men  may  see  and  the  reverent  recognize  as 
proof  of  sanctity.  The  skeptic  may  possibly 
ascribe  it  to  a  different  cause,  having  per- 
chance seen  the  like  around  the  shadow  of 
his  own  head  cast,  as  he  sat  in  the  saddle,- 
upon  the  clipped  grass  of  a  polo  field.  He 
will  certainly  do  so  when  he  perceives  sim- 
ilar halos  about  the  heads  of  his  godless 
friends.  Yet  that  abandoned  character,  Ben- 
venuto  Cellini,  on    suddenly  remarking  one 


1 1 6  OCCULT  JAPAN'. 

day  an  aureole  radiating  from  the  reflection 
of  his  head  in  the  water,  as  he  leaned  over 
the  side  of  a  boat,  took  it  at  once  for  sign 
certain  that  his  salvation  was  assured. 

So  much  for  the  fresh-water  cure.  To  sum 
it  up  in  a  maxim,  —  adapting  to  its  gentler 
warfare  with  the  spirits  of  evil  Danton's 
celebrated  one  about  war  in  general,  —  we 
may  say  that  the  three  essentials  to  success 
in  it  are  :  "  De  I'eau  douce  !  de  I'eau  douce  ! 
at  encore  de  I'eau  douce  !  " 

III. 

Fasting  {danjiki)  is  the  next  mortification 
to  the  flesh.  The  poor  brute  of  a  body  un- 
equally yoked  to  so  indomitable  a  spirit  fares 
ill.  For  it  is  deprived  at  once  both  of  super- 
ficial gratification  and  of  solid  nourishment. 
The  would-be  pure  must  abstain  from  meat, 
from  fish,  from  things  cooked,  and,  compre- 
hensively, from  whatever  has  taste  or  smell. 
In  short,  he  should  lead  gastronomically  an 
utterly  insipid  existence.  He  may  not  even 
indulge  in  the  national  tea,  a  beverage  taste- 
less and  bodiless  enough  in  all  conscience 
to  escape  proscription.  Salt  is  specially  to 
be  shunned  (skhvodachi).    It  is  worth  noting 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 1 7 

that  on  the  way  to  a  higher  life  the  appar- 
ently harmless  chloride  of  sodium  should 
work  as  banefully  within  a  man  as  it  works 
beneficially  without  him. 

Greater  deprivation  than  all  these,  even 
tobacco  falls  under  the  ban.  In  that  earthly 
paradise  of  smokers,  the  Japanese  Islands, 
where  the  use  of  the  weed  rises  superior 
even  to  sex,  it  seems  indeed  hard  that  only 
those  dedicate  to  deity  should  be  debarred  it. 
But  the  road  to  immaterial  peace  of  mind 
knows  no  material  narcotic  by  the  way. 
After  he  has  attained  to  a  holy  calm  without 
it,  the  lay  brother  returns  to  moderate  indul- 
gence in  this  least  gross  form  of  gluttony. 
The  professed  ascetic  continues  to  abjure  it 
his  life  long. 

Nuts  and  berries  form  the  staple  of  the 
gyqjds  diet,  if  he  be  living  a  hermit  among 
the  hills ;  buckwheat  flour  if,  though  not  of 
the  world,  he  be  still  in  it.  He  may  also  eat 
vegetables  and  dried  persimmons  and  grapes 
in  their  season ;  but  he  must  eat  most 
sparingly  of  whatever  it  be.  One  bowl  of 
buckwheat  and  a  dish  of  greens  at  noon  is 
sustenance  enough  for  the  day.  Breakfast 
and  supper  are  forbidden  panderings  to  the 


1 1 8  OCCULT.  JAPAN. 

flesh.  To  wash  this  next  to  nothing  down 
cold  water  is  allowed  him,  if  his  external 
applications  have  not  already  given  him 
enough  of  it. 

Not  unnaturally  a  diet  of  such  subtraction 
speedily  reduces  him  to  his  lowest  mental 
terms,  a  state  which  he  still  further  simpli- 
fies by  purely  mental  means. 

To  start  with,  the  general  character  of  his 
existence  conduces  to  that  end.  Whether 
he  be  living  an  actual  anchorite  among  the 
mountains  or  only  a  would-be  one  in  town, 
solitude  complete  or  partial  tends  by  well- 
known  laws  to  convert  him  into  either  a 
maniac  or  a  simpleton.  To  a  species  of  the 
latter  it  is  his  ambition  to  attain. 

To  this  end  untold  repetitions  of  elemen- 
tary prayers  admirably  conduce.  It  would 
be  hard  indeed  to  overestimate  the  efificacy 
of  such  process  for  producing  utter  blank- 
ness  of  mind.  The  subdued  chanting  by 
rote  over  and  over  again  of  words  to  which 
any  thought  has  long  since  bade  good-by 
tends  in  a  twofold  manner  to  mental  vacuity. 
There  is  just  enough  mental  action  going 
on  to  keep  the  mind  from  thinking  of  any- 
thing else,  and  yet  it  is  so  ineffably  unin- 


-.ITT  1 


INCARNA  TIOiVS.  1 1 9 

teresting  that  attention,  do  what  it  will, 
inevitably  nods.  It  is  a  mistake  to  sup- 
pose that  the  soothing  effects  of  church  are 
wholly  due  to  sound  sleep  during  the  ser- 
mon. Any  auditory  routine  is  competent 
to  compel  it.  Rhythmic  monotone  is  as 
potent  a  lullaby  as  more  consecrated  cradle- 
song.  The  eventual  end  of  both  would  be 
sleep ;  as  we  see  with  the  latter  in  the  case 
of  an  infant  in  his  crib  or  of  middle-aged 
gentlemen  in  their  pews,  and  in  our  own 
case  with  the  former  when  we  conquer  our 
insomnia  by  methodically  counting  to  a 
hundred  an  indefinite  number  of  times. 
The  chanter  does  not  attain  to  this  supreme 
nirvana  because  it  is  he  himself  that  is 
preaching  the  sermon  ;  but  the  soporific 
power  of  these  rites  in  helping  to  a  virtuous 
vacancy  of  mind  is  quite  specific,  and  partly 
accounts  incidentally  for  the  long-winded- 
ness  of  preachers. 

To  this  same  intent,  the  more  searching 
brother  practices  upon  himself  further  in- 
genious devices.  One  of  the  most  effective 
of  these  is  the  concentrating  his  whole 
attention  upon  his  own  breathing.  Mentally, 
he    scrutinizes    each    expiration  —  the    in- 


120  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

spirations  appear  to  be  somewhat  better 
able  to  look  after  themselves  —  with  molec- 
ular minuteness.  Each  breath  as  it  passes 
out  is  thus  subjected  to  the  spirit's  picket 
challenge.  By  giving  his  whole  mind  in  this 
manner  to  the  mere  method  of  existence,  he 
effectually  prevents  any  ideas  from  stealing 
into  that  mind  unawares.  After  prolonged 
duty  of  the  sort,  consciousness,  like  all  really 
good  sentinels,  nods  at  her  post  ;  in  which, 
unlike  the  good  sentinels,  lies  the  virtue  of 
the  deed,  though  unsuspected  of  the  doer. 
For  divine  possession  in  Japan,  like  other 
Japanese  things,  is  not  a  science  but  an  art. 
The  reason  given  by  religion  for  this  inspec- 
tion of  one's  breathing  is  that  by  prayerful 
concentration  upon  the  source  of  spirit  one's 
evil  spirit  may  be  expelled  and  a  good 
afflatus  drawn  in.  One  of  the  truly  pious 
when  quantitively  questioned  told  me  that 
he  had  thus  kept  watch  on  himself  for  three 
weeks  at  a  time,  only  pausing  in  the  pursuit 
unavoidably  to  eat  and  sleep.  It  is  sadden- 
ing to  think  to  what  farther  tenuities  he 
miofht  not  have  attained  had  he  not  been 
thus  grossly  shackled  to  the  flesh. 

Ablutions  and  abstinence  are  thus  the  two 


INCARNATIONS.  121 

great  gyo,  which  endless  prayers,  mechan- 
ical finger-charms,  and  careful  breathing  help 
accentuate. 

But  besides  the  regular  stock  austerities, 
there  are  several  supererogatory  ones.  There 
is,  for  example,  the  gyo  called  tsumadachi, 
which  consists  in  walking  on  the  tips  of  one's 
toes  wherever  one  has  occasion  to  go.  A 
species  of  pious  ballet-dancing  this. 

Then  there  is  the  austerity  of  never  look- 
ing upon  a  woman's  face.  This  martyrdom 
the  ascetic  who  had  practiced  it  spoke  of 
as  a  very  severe  self-infliction  indeed.  But 
in  view  of  the  vast  subjective  disturbance 
wrought  even  unconsciously  by  the  sex,  I 
should  judge  it  to  be  one  of  the  most  essen- 
tial austerities  of  all.  For  no  man  who  is 
a  man  can  take  that  absorbing  interest  in 
nothing  at  all  which  the  rules  require  while 
a  pair  of  piquant  eyes  and  a  petticoat  lead 
his  imagination  their  irresistible  dance.  To 
be  insensible  to  such  charm  were  to  have 
attained  to  complete  insensibility  already. 

Compared  with  this  renunciation,  the  next 
gyo  must  be  a  positive  pleasure.  It  consists 
in  letting  unlimited  mosquitoes  bite  one  to 
satiety  for  seven  consecutive  nights. 


122  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

The  aptitude  of  all  these  artifices  to  the 
end  desired  is  more  or  less  apparent :  some 
tending  to  slow  down  the  whole  machine ; 
or  by  weakening  the  body,  or  by  tiring  the 
mind,  some  to  dull  the  sense  perceptions 
by  persistent  attention  to  what  is  essentially 
incapable  of  holding  it,  —  all  to  reduce  the 
brain  to  an  inactive  state.  The  road  is  un- 
necessarily long  because  originally  discov- 
ered by  chance,  and  then  blindly  followed  by 
succeeding  ages  without  rational  improve- 
ment. An  immense  amount  of  labor  is  thus 
in  point  of  fact  thrown  away.  How  much 
quicker  a  like  result  can  be  obtained  by  the 
application  of  a  little  science,  modern  hyp- 
notism shows. 

Now  there  will  have  been  noticed  in  the 
list  of  austerities  a  steady  departure  from 
primitive  simplicity.  This  decrease  in  sim- 
plicity is  strictly  paralleled  by  the  decrease 
in  their  respective  use.  Everybody  washed, 
though  comparatively  few  poised  on  their 
toes.  The  several  vogue  of  the  austerities  is 
further  paralleled  by  the  position  occupied 
by  those  who  practiced  them,  in  that  long 
chain  of  mixed  belief  which,  dependent  from 
pure  Shinto  at  the  one  end,  is  supported  by 


INCAKNA  TIONS.  1 2  3 

Buddhism  from  the  other.  The  mosquito 
ordeal,  for  example,  is  quite  Buddhist,  while 
abnormal  ablutions  are  not.  The  significance 
of  these  two  parallelisms  will  appear  later  on. 
What  the  Japanese  sensations  are  during 
the  process  may  be  gathered  from  the  per- 
sonally narrated  experience  of  a  certain  be- 
liever, who  sufficiently  expresses  the  type. 
The  given  individual  was  first  minded  to 
become  a  practitioner  in  consequence  of  the 
surprising  cure,  through  god-possession,  of 
his  master's  sick  son.  He  was  at  the  time 
apprenticed  to  a  dyer,  and  was  away  on  a 
journey  when  the  cure  was  wrought.  Much 
impressed  by  what  he  heard  on  his  return, 
he  determined  to  seek  out  the  holy  man  who 
had  effected  the  miraculous  result,  and,  by 
following  in  his  footsteps,  to  attain  to  pro- 
ficiency himself.  The  gydja  received  him 
cordially,  and  kindly  indulged  him  in  his 
desire  by  putting  him  to  the  washing  {siiigyo) 
and  the  fasting  {danjiki)  austerities  in  all 
their  rigor  for  three  weeks.  At  the  end  of 
that  time  he  was  so  used  up  that  he  could 
hardly  stand.  One  bowl  of  rice  and  a  dish 
of  greens  a  day  are  little  enough  to  help  one 
through  such  a  course  of  ablutionary  train- 


1 2 4  OCCUL  T  JAPAJSr. 

ing.  Nevertheless,  for  fifty  days  more  he 
kept  on  with  but  little  addition  to  his  mea- 
gre diet,  washing  lavishly  the  while.  At  the 
close  of  this  second  period  he  relaxed  some- 
what and  ate,  as  he  expressed  it,  in  moder- 
ation, that  is,  immoderately  little ;  which 
ameliorated  treatment  of  himself  he  kept  up 
for  the  next  three  years.  He  was  twenty 
when  he  went  through  his  novitiate,  and 
sixty-three  when  he  told  me  of  it;  for  the 
intervening  forty-three  years  he  had  dieted 
and  douched  daily. 

No  very  definite  sensation,  follows,  he  says, 
the  exercise  of  the  austerities.  He  simply 
feels  an  increase  in  virtue,  whatever  that 
may  mean.  Fortunately  it  would  seem  to 
show  itself  in  a  practical  form.  For  as  he 
continues  in  the  regimen  he  gets  to  know, 
he  says,  good  and  evil  spontaneously.  When 
a  bit  of  good  luck  is  coming  to  him  or  his 
family,  or  a  misfortune  about  to  befall  them, 
he  feels  it  beforehand  by  a  certain  mental 
light-heartedness,  or  a  corresponding  oppres- 
sion of  spirit.  Finally  he  arrives  at  being 
able  to  predict  everything.  Whether  he  can 
always  avert  what  he  is  able  to  foretell  may 
be  open  to  doubt.    For  consequent  upon  this 


INCARNATIONS.  12$ 

exposure  of  his  capabilities  the  poor  man 
contracted  a  very  bad  cold,  and  was  confined 
for  a  couple  of  weeks  to  his  house. 

He  was,  as  the  mention  of  his  family 
showed,  a  married  man.  In  this  he  made  no 
exception  to  the  rule.  All  lay  brethren  marry 
as  a  matter  of  course.  Indeed,  in  Shinto 
proper,  the  priests  wed  like  anybody  else. 
Nor  do  such  as  follow  the  austerities  commit 
themselves  in  the  least  to  celibacy.  For 
matrimony  and  self-consecration  to  the  gods 
do  not,  it  appears,  conflict.  In  spite  of  the 
great  advantage  that  accrues  to  piety  from 
never  looking  upon  a  woman's  face,  men- 
tioned above,  mere  matrimony  would  seem 
innocuous.  Either  femininity  in  repeated 
doses  loses  its  intoxicating  effect,  or  acquired 
sanctity  renders  the  believer  superior  to  it. 
Perhaps,  as  one  of  my  married  friends  sug- 
gested to  me,  marriage  is  sufficient  austerity 
itself. 

However  that  may  be,  certain  it  is  that 
nowadays  even  gydja  wed  without  detriment 
to  their  souls.  I  am  by  no  means  sure 
that  they  did  not  in  the  olden  time,  for  so 
commonplace  a  detail  of  a  far  oriental's  life 
as    matrimony    might    well    have    escaped 


126  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

chronicling.  Still  there  is  no  doubt  that 
times  have  changed  for  the  worse  with  gydja, 
as  my  gydja  averred.  Even  pecuniarily  so 
much  is  evident.  In  the  good  old  days  they 
supported  themselves  in  peace  and  plenty 
from  the  offerings  of  grateful  patients ;  now 
alas,  as  he  said  pathetically,  these  gratuities 
do  not  suffice,  and  many  a  worthy  soul  is 
forced  to  eke  out  a  slender  subsistence  by 
secular  work  in  secret.  Making  toothpicks 
was  the  industry  he  affectingly  instanced, 
when  pressed  to  be  more  explicit.  To  be 
driven  to  such  extremity  must  seem  indeed 
pitiable,  even  to  the  undevout. 

Thus,  then,  do  the  pious  get  themselves 
into  a  general  potentiahty  of  possession. 
Before  possession  becomes  a  fact,  however, 
a  short  renewal  of  extreme  austerities  must 
be  undergone  ;  like  the  slight  shake  that 
crystallizes  the  solution.  On  notice  of  a 
case  to  be  cured  the  practitioner  enters 
again  the  rigors  of  the  washing  and  the  fast, 
and  keeps  them  up  for  a  week  if  he  be  very 
thorough,  two  or  three  days  if  that  will 
suffice.  The  amount  of  abstinence  depends 
upon  the  gravity  of  the  case.  There  is  some- 
thing highly  satisfactory  in  this  dieting  of 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 2  7 

the  physician  in  place  of  the  patient.  From 
the  patient's  point  of  view  it  instantly  raises 
divinopathy  above  all  other  pathies  on  earth. 
Besides,  it  is  more  thoroughly  logical.  For 
why,  indeed,  should  not  the  physician,  if  well 
paid  for  it,  be  expected  to  furnish  all  the 
elements  of  his  cure  ! 

IV. 

We  have  now  reached  the  function  itself. 
That  this  is  imposing  in  the  first  sense  of 
that  word,  that  is,  impressive,  the  hold  it  has 
had  on  man  sufficiently  testifies  ;  that  it  is 
imposing  in  the  second  sense,  that  is,  a  sham, 
is  a  supposition  which  the  first  view  of  one 
of  these  trances  would  suffice  to  dispel. 

We  will  first  take  up  the  Ryobu  form 
which  is  the  commonest  one.  The  ceremony 
with  which  Ryobu  has  surrounded  the  act  is 
finely  in  keeping  with  the  impressiveness  of 
the  act  itself.  So  sense-compelling  a  service 
you  shall  find  it  hard  to  match  in  the  masses 
of  any  other  church.  But  more  constraining 
still  are  the  energy  and  the  sincerity  with 
which  the  whole  is  done.  It  is  small  won- 
der that  the  already  susceptible  subject  feels 
its  charm  when  even  bystanders  are  stirred. 


128  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

As  with  the  gyo,  purification  is  of  its 
essence.  For  not  only  must  a  general  pu- 
rification antecede  the  act,  but  a  special 
purification  must  immediately  precede  it. 
And  first  the  spot  must  be  holy.  Now  only 
one  spot  is  holy  by  nature :  the  sacred 
mountain  Ontake  or  its  affiliated  peaks.  All 
others  must  be  purified.  These  may  be  of 
two  kinds  :  temples,  public  or  private,  —  for 
most  houses  have  what  is  called  a  gods'-shelf, 
{kamidana),  which  does  them  for  family 
shrine,  —  and  ordinary  rooms.  The  first  are 
kept  perpetually  purified ;  the  second  are 
specially  purified  for  the  occasion. 

If  there  be  no  permanent  shrine,  a  tempo- 
rary one  is  constructed.  Its  central  motif  is 
2i  gohei  upon  a  wand,  stood  upright  on  a  ped- 
estal. By  the  side  of  the  gohei  are  lighted 
candles,  and  flanking  these,  sprigs  of  sakaki, 
the  sacred  tree  of  Shinto.  In  front  of  the 
gohei  is  set  out  a  feast  for  the  god.  The 
feast  varies  in  elaborateness  according  to  the 
occasion,  its  principal  dishes  being  a  bowl 
of  rice,  a  saucer  of  salt,  and  a  cup  of  sak^, 
the  national  wine.  In  addition  to  these 
indispensables,  any  form  of  uncooked  human 
food  may  be  offered  to  the  god,  according  to 


INCARNATIONS.  1 29 

the  sumptuousness  of  the  repast  it  is  desired 
to  give  him. 

The  shrine  is  set  up  in  the  tokonovia,  or 
recess  of  honor,  of  the  room.  At  the  back 
is  placed  a  hanging-scroll  of  the  gods  of 
Ontake.  Some  five  feet  in  front  of  the 
tokonoma,  in  the  centre  of  the  sacred  space, 
a  porous  earthenware  bowl  is  placed  upon 
a  stand,  and  in  the  bowl  is  built  a  pyre  of 
incense  sticks,  usually  beginning  as  a  log-hut 
and  terminating  as  a  wigwam. 

Then  the  place  is  purified.  This  is  done 
by  inclosing  the  room,  or  the  part  of  it  in 
front  of  the  shrine,  by  strings  from  which 
depend  at  intervals  small  gohei.  These  are 
usually  arranged  after  the  so-called  seven- 
five-three  {shichi  -  go  -  saji)  pattern;  seven  of 
them  being  nearest  the  shrine,  five  on  each 
side,  and  three  at  the  farther  end.  From  the 
space  so  inclosed  all  evil  spirits  are  driven 
out  by  prayer,  by  finger-charms,  by  sprink- 
ling of  salt,  by  striking  of  sparks  from  a  flint 
and  steel,  and  by  brandishing  of  a  goJiei- 
wand  used  as  an  exorcising  air-broom. 

After  the  purification  of  the  place,  the 
next  duty  of  the  officiators  is  the  purifica- 
tion of  their  persons.     For  this  purpose  they 


1 30  OCCUL  T  JAPAN. 

all  go  out  to  the  well  or  to  the  bathroom  to 
bathe,  and  return  clad  in  the  Ontake  pil- 
grim dress,  a  single  white  garment  stamped 
with  the  names  of  the  Ontake  gods,  with  the 
name  of  the  mountain  itself,  and  with  the 
signs  of  their  ko  or  pilgrim  club.  For,  as 
we  shall  see  more  particularly  later,  all 
Ryobu  adepts,  whether  priests  or  laymen, 
are  enrolled  in  some  Ontake  pilgrim  club. 
This  solitary  garment  is  bound  about  the 
waist  by  a  white  girdle. 

In  its  full  complement  the  company  con- 
sists of  eight  persons.  There  is,  first,  the 
man  whom  the  god  is  to  possess.  He 
is  called  the  nakaza,  or  seat-in-the-midst. 
Equal  to  him  in  consideration  is  the  man 
who  presides  over  the  function  and  who  is 
to  talk  with  deity,  the  exorcist,  so  to  speak, 
called  the  viaeza,  or  seat-in-front.  Next  in 
religious  rank  is  the  ivakiza,  or  side  -  seat. 
He  is  one  of  the  shit  en,  or  four  heavens,  spe- 
ciaHzed  as  the  toho,  or  eastern  side,  the  hoppo, 
or  northern  side,  the  nambo,  or  southern  side, 
and  the  saiho,  or  western  side.  Their  duty 
is  to  ward  off  evil  influences  from  the  four 
quarters.  The  two  front  ones  also  have  the 
charge  of  the  paraphernalia,  and  the  nambo 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 3 1 

the  care  of  the  patient.  In  addition  to  these 
six  there  is  a  deputy  niaeza  and  a  sort  of 
clerk  of  court.  The  impersonality  of  these 
names  is  worth  noting.  It  is  the  post,  not 
the  person,  that  is  designated. 

Severally  clapping  their  hands,  the  per- 
formers now  enter  upon  the  ceremony  proper. 
This  consists  of  two  parts  :  a  general  purifi- 
cation service,  separated  by  a  pause  and  a 
rearrangement  from  the  communion  service 
itself.  The  one  is  an  essential  preface  to 
the  other. 

When  the  last  man  is  fairly  launched  upon 
the  general  incantation,  the  maeza  starts  one 
of  the  purification  prayers  {harai),  into  which 
the  others  instantly  fall.  The  prayer  chosen 
to  begin  with  is  usually  the  misogi  no  harai. 
It  is  a  chant  chiefly  in  monotone,  only  occa- 
sionally lapsing  for  a  note  into  the  octave 
or  the  fifth.  Every  now  and  then  a  chanter 
sinks  into  a  guttural  grunt  as  if  mentally 
fatigued,  very  suggestive  of  a  mechanical 
dulling  of  the  mind. 

The  harai  over,  or  rather  bridged  by  some 
of  the  company,  the  maeza  starts  another, 
the  rest  take  it  in  swing,  and  the  eight  are 
off  again  together.     In  this  manner  prayer 


132  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

after  prayer  is  intoned,  and  uta  or  songs 
chanted  in  like  cadence  between.  Shakings 
of  the  shakujo,  a  small  crosier  with  metal 
rings,  emphasize  the  rhythm,  and  the  pilgrim 
bells  rung  at  intervals  point  the  swift  pro- 
cessional chorus  of  the  whole. 

The  pyre  is  then  lighted,  and  as  the  flames 
leap  into  the  air,  prayers  ascend  with  them 
to  Fud5-sama.  Meanwhile,  pieces  of  paper 
with  characters  inscribed  on  them  are  rap- 
idly passed  to  and  fro  through  the  flame  by 
the  maeza  an  unlimited  number  of  times  ;  yet 
do  they  not  burn,  an  immunity  due  to  pos- 
session by  the  gods.  Then  he  holds  each 
for  a  momept  stationary  in  the  flame,  upon 
which  it  catches  fire  and  is  caught  upward 
by  the  air  current,  to  float  away,  the  shriv- 
eled shape  of  its  former  self.  The  paper  is 
in  effigy  of  the  disease,  and,  according  as  it 
ascends  or  fails  to  do  so,  will  the  disease 
itself  depart  or  stay.  Some  exorcists,  with 
more  wisdom,  perhaps,  say  that  the  manner 
of  its  ascension  only  is  significant.  But 
mark  how  pitying  are  the  gods.  For  since 
the  flame  makes  its  own  draft,  that  must 
indeed  be  an  unlucky  wraith  of  tissue  ash 
that  fails  of  being  well  caught  up  with  it  to 
heaven. 


INCARNA  TIONS.  133 

More  chanting  brings  the  purification  ser- 
vice to  a  close. 

The  bowl  that  held  the  pyre  is  then  re- 
moved, and  sheets  of  paper  are  laid  in  the 
centre  of  the  sacred  space  in  the  new  places 
the  performers  are  to  occupy.  Then  the 
gohei-\i2Sidi.  is  brought  down  from  the  shrine 
and  stood  up  in  the  midst. 

The  men  take  their  seats  for  the  descent 
of  the  god.  Up  to  this  time  they  squat  on 
their  heels  in  the  usual  Japanese  fashion; 
from  now  on  they  sit  with  folded  legs,  which 
some  say  is  the  exalted  seat  of  old  Japan, 
and  others  ascribe  to  Buddhist  influence. 
The  maeza  seats  himself  first,  opposite  and 
facing  the  shrine,  folds  his  legs  in  front  of 
him,  and,  drawing  his  dress  over  them,  ties 
it  together  from  the  sides  and  then  brings 
the  farther  end  up  and  ties  it  to  his  girdle. 
This  is  the  usual  Japanese  mode  of  tying  up 
a  bundle.  The  others  do  the  same,  the  shiten 
seating  themselves  at  the  four  corners,  and 
the  deputy  viaeza  and  clerk  by  the  side  of 
the  maeza.  The  nakaza  is  as  yet  unseated, 
officially  speaking. 

All  face  the  gohei  and  go  through  a  fur- 
ther  short   incantation.     Then    the   wakiza 


134  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

reverently  removes  the  gohei-v^dca.^  and  holds 
it  while  the  nakaza  seats  himself  where  it 
was,  facing  from  the  shrine,  tucks  himself  in 
as  the  others  did,  and  closes  his  eyes.  After 
some  private  finger-twistings  and  prayer  on 
the  part  of  the  nakaza  and  the  maeza,  the 
nakasa  brings  his  hands  together  in  front 
of  him  and  the  maeza,  taking  the  gohei-v^-axi^ 
from  the  wakiza,  places  it  between  them. 
Then  all  the  others  join  in  chant,  and  watch 
for  the  advent  of  the  god. 

For  a  few  minutes,  the  time  varying  with 
the  particular  nakaza,  the  man  remains  per- 
fectly motionless.  Then  suddenly  the  wand 
begins  to  quiver ;  the  quiver  gains  till  all  at 
once  the  man  is  seized  with  a  convulsive 
throe  — the  throe,  as  we  say  in  truth,  of  one 
possessed.  In  some  trances  the  eyes  then 
open,  the  eyeballs  being  rolled  up  half  out 
of  sight  ;  in  others  the  eyes  remain  shut. 
Then  the  throe  subsides  again  to  a  perma- 
nent quiver,  the  eyes,  if  open,  fixed  in  the 
trance  look.  The  man  has  now  become  the 
god. 

The  maeza,  bowed  down,  then  reverently 
asks  the  name  of  the  god,  and  the  god  an- 
swers ;   after  which   the  maeza  prefers   his 


IaYCArisA  tions.  1 3  5 

petitions,  to  which  the  god  makes  reply. 
When  he  has  finished  asking  what  he  will 
and  the  god  has  finished  replying,  the  nakaza 
falls  forward  on  his  face. 

The  viacza  concludes  with  a  prayer  ;  then 
striking  the  nakaza  on  the  back,  with  or 
without  the  ceremony  of  previously  writing 
a  cabalistic  character  (a  Sanskrit  one)  there, 
the  niaeza  wakes  him  up.  One  of  the  others 
gives  the  man  water  from  a  cup,  and  when 
he  has  been  able  to  swallow  it,  the  rest  set 
to  and  rub  his  arms  and  body  out  of  their 
cataleptic  contraction.  For  at  first  it  is  prac- 
tically impossible  to  take  the  wand  from  his 
unnatural  grasp. 

Although  eight  men  are  considered  the 
proper  number  by  Ryobu  canons  for  a  full 
presentation  of  the  function,  so  many  are 
not  really  vital  to  its  performance.  Two  are 
all  that  are  absolutely  essential ;  one  to  be 
possessed,  and  one  to  hear  what  the  god 
may  deign  to  say.  I  have  seen  trances  with 
officiators  in  number  anywhere  from  two  to 
eight.  One  man  alone  would  be  sufficient, 
were  it  not  a  part  of  the  rite  that  some  one 
should  hear  the  god's  words ;  for  one  man 
can  take  the  parts  of  both  rnaeza  and  nakaza 


1 2,6  occuL  T  japan:  ' 

in  turn,  doing  the  inacza  s  part  for  the  pre- 
liminary purification,  and  the  naka::d s  for 
the  possession  itself.  In  this  case  the  second 
man  acts  as  wakiza.  Ordinarily,  however, 
when  two  men  take  part,  one  is  the  maeza 
and  the  other  the  nakaza  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end.  With  three  men,  the  third 
is  tvakiza.  Of  this  kind  was  the  posses- 
sion upon  Ontake,  in  the  case  of  the  three 
devotees. 

From  the  moment  he  claps  his  hands  each 
begins  upon  a  chain  of  finger-charms,  of  the 
effective  uncouthness  of  which  it  is  difficult 
to  convey  any  idea  in  words.  Their  uncanny 
character  is  distinctly  the  most  impressive 
thing  in  the  function.  They  are  called  in- 
musubi  or  seal-bindings,  which  describes 
their  intent,  and  incidentally  their  appear- 
ance. In  form  it  is  playing  holy  cat's-cradle 
with  one's  hands,  but  in  feeling  it  is  the  most 
intense  action  imaginable.  The  fingers  are 
tied  into  impossible  knots  with  a  vehemence 
which  is  almost  maniacal ;  and  the  tying  is 
timed  to  consecrated  formulae  that,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  performer's  exaltation,  take 
on  much  of  the  emotion  of  a  curse. 

The  several   twists  typify  all   manner  of 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 3  7 

acts.  The  position  of  the  fingers  in  one 
symbolizes  a  well,  raising  which  above  the 
head  and  then  upsetting  it  souses  one  with 
holy  water.  Another  represents  a  very  real- 
istic pull,  which  constrains  a  good  spirit  to 
enter  the  performer.  A  third  compels  evil 
spirits  to  avaunt ;  and  so  forth  and  so  on. 
There  is  quite  an  esoteric  library  on  the 
subject,  and  so  thoroughly  defined  is  the 
system  that  the  several  finger-joints  bear 
special  names. 

The  seal-bindings  are  themselves  sealed 
by  a  yet  simpler  digital  device  wrought  with 
one  hand,  and  called  cutting  the  kuji  or  the 
nine  characters.  It  consists  in  drawing  in 
the  air  an  imaginary  five-barred  gate,  made 
of  five  horizontal  bars  and  four  vertical  posts. 
This  gate  is  to  keep  out  the  evil  spirits. 
The  reason  there  are  nine  strokes  and  not 
ten,  which  is  the  far-eastern  dozen,  is  due  to 
the  far-eastern  practice  of  always  providing 
an  enemy  with  a  possible  way  of  escape.  If 
the  Japanese  devils  could  not  thus  run  away 
it  is  said  they  would  become  dangerous. 
For,  as  a  far-eastern  proverb  hath  it,  — 

"  The  cornered  rat 
Will  bite  the  cat." 


138  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

At  first  I  was  inclined  to  believe  these 
finger-charms  Buddhist.  But  although  the 
Ryobuists  say  that  they  are,  I  have  never 
seen  a  Buddhist  practice  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  they  are  professedly  not  Shinto, 
and  are  shunned  by  pure  Shintoists  accord- 
ingly. Their  most  devoted  admirers  are  the 
Ryobuists  themselves. 

The  finger-charms  are  knotted  upon  one 
or  other  of  the  great  purification  prayers 
(Jiarai).  Of  these  there  are  three  chief  ones  : 
the  misogi  no  harai,  the  tiakatomi  no  Jiarai, 
and  the  rokkon  shojo  no  Jiarai.  The  misogi 
no  Jiarai  I  believe  to  be  pure  Shinto.  The 
tiaJcatomi  no  Jiarai  undoubtedly  is  a  native 
production,  and  is  said  to  have  been  com- 
posed by  an  ancestor  of  the  present  high- 
priest  of  the  Shinshiu  sect.  The  roJiJzon 
sJiojo  no  Jiarai  is  of  Ryobu  origin.  It  is  the 
great  Ontake  processional,  chanted  by  the 
pilgrims  as  they  toil  slowly  up  the  moun- 
tain's slopes. 


Having  thus  sketched  the  possession  cult, 
I  will  now  present  some  specimen  trances 
of  the  various  Ryobu  varieties  of  it.     These 


INCARNATIONS.  139 

shall  be  followed  by  the  Buddhist  posses- 
sions, and  these  in  turn  by  the  pure  Shinto 
ones.  When  we  shall  thus  have  looked  at 
the  possession  objectively  in  the  manner,  we 
will  consider  it  subjectively  in  the  man. 

Heading  the  list  comes  the  first  possession 
that  I  succeeded  in  obtaining,  —  a  parlor-pos- 
session in  my  own  house.  After  very  proper 
coquetting  with  mystery,  a  priest  of  the 
Shinshiu  sect  consented  to  visit  me  for  the 
purpose  with  a  friend  as  side-seat  {wakiza). 
His  performance  was  a  case  of  playing  con- 
secutively two  parts  in  the  function:  first 
that  of  exorcist,  and  then  of  entranced. 
Although  he  was  a  pure  Shinto  priest,  the 
ceremony  was  according  to  Ryobu  rite  ;  for 
he  was  a  reformed  Ryobuist,  and  his  refor- 
mation did  not  extend  to  the  rite. 

His  introductory  scene-setting  enabled  me 
to  gaze  for  the  first  time  upon  the  faces  of 
the  Ontake  gods.  For  he  began  by  hanging 
up  in  the  room's  recess  of  honor  a  scroll 
depicting  those  deities  ;  whom  as  yet  I  knew 
only  as  voices  —  voces  et  prcBtcrea  nil.  But 
inasmuch  as  talking  is  their  chief  character- 
istic, I  accepted  unhesitatingly  their  portraits 
for  speaking  likenesses.     There  were  nine 


140  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

of  their  Augustnesses  in  all,  standing  ped- 
estaled respectively  on  precipitous  points 
of  the  conventional  tri-peaked  mount  in  con- 
ventionally inapt  attitudes.  They  all  wore 
the  comfortable  cast  of  countenance  and  gen- 
erally immaculate  get-up  quite  incompatible 
with  ever  getting  up  a  mountain.  This,  of 
course,  proved  their  divinity.  The  great  god 
of  Ontake  towered  commandingly  on  the 
highest  peak,  flanked  by  two  lesser  Shinto 
divinities  perched  on  somewhat  lower  pin- 
nacles. Below  these  stood  Fud5-saraa  —  a 
conglomerate  god  from  nobody  knows  ex- 
actly where,  popularly  worshiped  as  the  god 
of  fire,  which  it  is  certain  he  was  not,  but 
possessing,  however,  for  some  inscrutable 
cause  a  certain  lien  on  the  land.  He,  too, 
was  flanked  by  two  companions  on  suitable 
inferior  vantage  points.  These  peopled  the 
mid-heaven  of  ascent.  Still  lower  down  came 
three  canonized  saints  of  Ryobu,  the  men 
who  had  opened  the  mountain  by  first  suc- 
ceeding in  getting  to  the  top  ;  for  which  feat 
they  were  now  rewarded  by  being  placed 
humbly  at  the  bottom.  The  relative  posi- 
tions of  the  three  classes  of  gods  is  worth 
notice,  for  such  is  their  invariable  ranking 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 4 1 

in  Rydbu  pictures  ;  a  grading  in  greatness 
which  says  something  about  the  Shintd  an- 
cestry of  the  act. 

After  the  priest  had  duly  hung  up  this 
happy  family  portrait  and  arranged  the  altar 
and  incense  pyre,  he  went  and  bathed,  re- 
turning clothed  in  his  Ontake  pilgrim  robe, 
the  very  one  in  which  he  had  himself  several 
times  made  the  ascent  of  the  mountain,  and 
which  was  therefore  correspondingly  pure. 
It  showed  this  unmistakably.  I  think  it  was 
perhaps  the  dirtiest  garment  I  have  ever 
seen  ;  at  all  events  it  was  the  most  self-evi- 
dently  so.  It  convinced  at  once  of  holiness 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  fortunately  lacked 
all  odor  of  sanctity.  For  it  was  internally  as 
clean  as  externally  it  was  dirty ;  it  being,  as 
we  have  seen,  as  imperative  upon  a  palmer 
to  wash  himself  as  it  is  not  to  wash  his  robe. 

Through  the  garment's  present  grimy  gray 
glimmered  traces  of  red  characters ;  the 
stamped  certificates,  these,  of  his  ascents. 
Their  glory,  enhanced  by  being  hidden  in  an 
ideographic  tongue,  shone  all  the  more  re- 
splendent for  being  thus  mellowed  by  travel- 
stain.  It  was  a  pious  thought  that  induced 
the  wearer  later  to  let   his   mantle  fall,  in 


142  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

gift,  upon  me  ;  for  it  now  rests  from  its 
wanderings  among  my  most  valued  posses- 
sions. 

The  pale  gray  of  his  ascension  robe  took 
on  a  further  tinge  of  glory  from  the  glow  of 
the  burning  incense  pyre.  The  seemingly 
conscious  flame  lapped  the  pyre  eagerly 
about,  and  then  leaped  searchingly  up  into 
the  void,  to  send  its  soul  in  aromatic  surges 
of  smoke  in  curling  rise  toward  heaven,  into 
every  highest  nook  and  cranny  of  the  wood- 
paneled  ceiling  of  the  room.  From  without, 
the  glow  of  dying  day  stole  through  the  slid- 
ing screens,  tinging  the  gloom  within  ;  while 
pervading  it  all  like  a  perfume  rose  the  chant 
of  the  pilgrim-clad  petitioner,  rolling  up  in 
surges  of  its  own,  smothering  sense  to  some 
delicious  dream.  Behind,  silent  and  immov- 
able, sat  the  assistant,  a  statue  bowed  in 
prayer. 

Through  the  flame  the  priest  passed,  one 
after  the  other,  written  sheets  emblematic  of 
disease  ;  passed  each  deliberately  to  and  fro 
an  amazing  number  of  times,  yet  without  so 
much  as  scorching  it.  After  which  he  held  it 
there  motionless  for  a  moment  and  it  swiftly 
took  fire.      As  it  did  so  his  chant  swelled. 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 43 

The  shriveled  shape  wavered,  poised,  and 
then  rose  with  the  chant  toward  the  rafters 
of  the  room.  Its  prayer  had  been  heard  and 
granted. 

When  the  last   embers   of   the  pyre  had 
burned  themselves  out,  and  the  orange  was 
slowly  fading  to  ash,  the  priest  brought  his 
chant  to    a   close,  and,  rising,  removed  the 
bowl.     Then,  spreading  pieces  of  paper  in  a 
sort  of  Greek  cross  upon  the  mats  Vvhere  the 
bowl  had  been,  he  seated  himself  upon  them 
in  the  nakazas  place,  facing  out  from  the 
shrine   and    prefacing   his    act   by    a    short 
prayer,  took  the  ^^^^z'-wand  in  both,  hands 
and    shut    his    eyes.      After    some    minutes 
of    hushed    suspense    the    wand     suddenly 
twitched  ;  the  twitching  grew  to  convulsions, 
the  wand  striking  the  man  first  on  the  fore- 
head with  quite   irresponsible  violence,  and 
then  with  like  frenzy  on  the  floor.     Finally 
it   came  back   still  quivering  to   its  former 
position  before  his  face.     I  say  "it,"  for  in 
truth  it  seemed  rather  the  wand  than   the 
man  that   caused  the  shaking.      Trembling 
there  a  few  moments,  it  went  off  again  into 
another  throe ;  and  so  the  action  continued 
intermittently  rising  and  falling,  till  at  last 


144  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

the  man  himself  fell  face  forward  upon  the 
floor. 

The  assistant  advanced,  raised  the  pos- 
sessed to  a  sitting  posture,  and  fell  to  thump- 
ing him  on  the  back  and  chest  to  wake  him. 
This  energetic  treatment  brought  him  suf- 
ficiently to  himself  to  be  able  to  articulate 
for  water.  But  when  the  glass  was  put  to 
his  lips  he  bit  it  to  pieces  in  his  frenzied 
efforts  to  drink.  By  good  luck  he  neither 
cut  himself  nor  swallowed  any  of  the  pieces. 

After  his  senses  had  fully  returned  and 
his  arms  had  been  well  kneaded,  we  carried 
him  out  upon  the  veranda,  his  legs  still  rigid 
in  catalepsy.  There  they  had  to  be  violently 
rubbed  and  jerked  into  a  natural  state  again. 
His  pulse  had  been  eighty-four  at  the  time 
when  he  began  upon  his  incantation  ;  it  was 
one  hundred  and  twenty  as  he  came  to  him- 
self again. 

When  sufficiently  recovered  he  went  and 
bathed,  and  on  returning,  his  first  question 
was  whether  he  had  spoken  in  the  trance. 
On  being  told  that  he  had  not  uttered  a 
syllable,  he  was  much  chagrined.  He  had 
hoped,  he  said,  to  have  astounded  us  by 
speaking  English  when  possessed,  a  tongue 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 45 

of  which,  in  his  normal  state,  he  knew  no- 
thing. That  he  might  be  permitted  to  do  so 
had  been  his  petition  as  exorcist.  Such  su- 
pernatural powers,  he  assured  us,  were  often 
vouchsafed  by  the  gods ;  and  he  mentioned 
an  Englishman  (the  only  trace  I  have  come 
across  of  a  previous  foreigner  in  this  other- 
world)  who  had  been  thus  possessed  twenty 
years  before  in  Kobe,  and  who,  though 
knowing  no  Japanese  in  his  natural  state, 
spoke  it  fluently  in  the  trance.  A  parallel 
to  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  illiterate  ser- 
ving-girl of  the  German  professor,  who,  in  the 
hypnotic  trance,  astounded  the  bystanders 
by  repeating  whole  pages  of  Greek,  which, 
it  turned  out,  she  must  unconsciously  have 
learned  from  simply  hearing  her  master  read 
Greek  plays  aloud,  while  she  casually  came 
in  and  out  to  tend  his  fire. 

I  will  next  present  a  function  with  the  full 
force  of  the  dramatis  persoiice.  It  also  was 
performed  in  my  own  house,  by  the  Mi- 
Kagura-ko,  or  August  Dancing  Pilgrim  Club. 
There  were  eight  performers,  the  parts  of 
maeza,  nakaza,  the  four  shiten,  the  deputy 
maeza,  and  the  clerk  of  court,  being  taken 
respectively  by  a  plasterer,  a  lumber  dealer. 


146  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

a  rice  shopman,  a  carpenter,  a  pawnbroker,  a 
pattern  designer,  a  fishmonger,  and  a  maker 
of  mizithiki,  those  red  and  white  paper  strings 
with  which  the  Japanese  tie  bow-knots  about 
their  gifts.  Quite  a  representative  board  of 
trade,  in  fact.  The  plasterer  was  the  presi- 
dent of  the  club,  and  the  pawnbroker  its 
treasurer.  This  last  combination  was  a  mere 
coincidence,  the  man's  earthly  calling  not 
being,  so  I  was  informed,  any  special  recom- 
mendation to  his  heavenly  office. 

On  the  day  appointed  they  turned  up,  more 
Japauico,  pre-punctually.  A  polite,  but  at 
first  aggravating  national  custom,  this  ap- 
pearance of  a  guest  considerably  before  the 
time  for  which  he  was  invited.  They  came 
in  detachments,  the  baggage  leading,  with 
the  president  and  clerk.  It  was  at  once  set 
up  in  scene,  together  with  several  other 
properties  provided  by  me  beforehand  at 
the  request  of  the  club.  The  list  of  the 
latter  articles  was  the  better  part  of  a  foot 
long,  and  footed  up  to  exactly  thirty-one 
cents  and  a  third. 

A  picture  of  Kuni-to-ko-dachi-no-mikoto, 
the  great  god  of  Ontake,  suitably  pedestaled 
upon  the  mountain  and   flanked  by  his  fol- 


INCARNATIONS.  147 

lowers,  was  suspended  in  the  recess,  in  front 
of  which  stood  a  gohci,  bosomed  in  sprigs  of 
Shint5's  sacred  tree,  the  dark  green  gloss 
of  the  leaves  bringing  out  vividly  the  white 
paper  flounces  of  the  symbol  of  the  god.  On 
either  side  of  it  stood  a  candle  speared  upon 
its  candlestick.  A  modest  repast  of  salt  and 
raw  rice  lay  below,  and  flanking  it  a  sake 
bottle  not  innocent  of  real  sake.  In  front  of 
the  feast,  in  a  pair  of  saucers,  two  tiny  wicks 
floating  in  rape-seed  oil  made  holy  twinkles 
of  light. 

In  the  middle  of  the  sacred  space,  duly 
inclosed   by  a  frieze  of  pendent  gohei,  was 
built    the   symbolic   primeval    house    of   in- 
cense  sticks.     The  place  was  then  purified 
by  prayer,  by  striking  of  sparks  from  a  flint 
and  steel,  and  by  air-dusting  with  the  gohei 
at  each  of  the  four  corners,  after  which  the 
eight  officiators  severally  left  for  the  bath- 
room   to  bathe,  and  returned   one  after  the 
other  clad  in  the  pilgrim  dress.     The  bath- 
ing, though  in    this  case  privately  done,  is 
often  publicly  performed.     On  the  occasion 
of  a  fire-crossing  {hi-watari),  I  have  seen  the 
holy  performers  strip  and  bathe  quite  natu- 
rally at  a  convenient  well,  in  the  face  of  the 


148  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

waiting  populace  of  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren. 

When  the  last  man  was  back  again  before 
the  altar,  the  eight  launched  in  a  body  swing- 
ingly  upon  one  of  the  purification  prayers, 
the  maeza  as  usual  leading  off.  Exceedingly 
impressive  these  purification  prayers  are,  if 
one  will  but  devoutly  refrain  from  under- 
standing them.  I  had  sonie  of  them  trans- 
lated, and  am  a  wiser  and  sadder  man  in 
consequence. 

As  the  chant  swelled  it  sounded  like,  and 
yet  unlike,  some  fine  processional  of  the 
church  of  Rome.  And  as  it  rolled  alons:  it 
touched  a  chord  that  waked  again  the  vision 
of  the  mountain,  and  once  more  before  me 
rose  Ontake,  and  I  saw  the  long  file  of  pil- 
grims tramping  steadily  up  the  slope. 

Intoned  in  monotone,  it  was  pointed  with 
pantomime,  those  strange  digital  contortions, 
the  finger-twists.  I  suppose  to  one  looking 
on  for  the  first  time  nothing  about  the  func- 
tion would  seem  so  far  out  of  all  his  world 
as  these  same  finger-charms.  The  semi- 
suppressed  vehemence  with  which  the  knots 
are  tied,  the  uncanny  look  of  the  knots  them- 
selves, and  the  strange  self-abandonment  of 


INCARNATIONS.  1 49 

the  performer  to  the  act,  produce  an  effect 
that  is  weird  in  the  extreme.  Symbolic  of 
bodily  action,  the  force  of  the  originals  is  felt 
in  these  their  effigies.  A  whole  drama  takes 
place  in  them,  done  by  a  true  magician,  as 
he  bids  the  devils  avaunt  and  calls  the  good 
spirits  to  his  aid  ;  and  so  realistic  are  the 
signs,  the  beings  to  whom  they  are  ad- 
dressed grow  real,  too.  Like  a  talk  at  a 
telephone,  the  half  that  is  heard  conjures 
up  of  itself  the  half  that  is  inaudible.  And 
their  uncanniness  clothes  these  conjurings 
with  the  character  of  the  supernatural.  You 
almost  think  to  see  both  the  devils  and  the 
gods. 

About  them  there  is  a  compelling  fasci- 
nation in  spite  of  their  repellent  uncouth- 
ness.  If  one  seek  to  unravel  his  sensation 
from  the  mesh  in  which  it  lies  caught,  he 
will  find  the  charm  of  the  thing  to  consist, 
I  think,  in  energetic  rhythm.  For  it  has 
something  of  the  cadence  of  a  dance ;  yet, 
unlike  a  dance,  it  is  not  pleasing  in  itself. 
It  is  indeed  the  height  of  inartistic  art ;  its 
very  uncouthness  has  a  certain  grace,  the 
grace  of  the  ungraceful  masterfully  done. 

If  such  be  the  force  of  the  charm  acting 


150  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

quite  simply  upon  the  dispassionate,  how 
great  its  hold  upon  the  believer,  set  as  it 
is  by  the  mordant  of  faith  !  And  then,  as 
chant  and  charm  roll  on  in  their  swift  pro- 
cessional, suddenly  the  brass-ringed  crosiers 
{shakiij'd)  ring  together  in  double  time,  join- 
ing with  it  their  jingle  as  of  passing  bells. 

Prayer  after  prayer  followed  thus  in  purifi- 
cation. Each  in  turn  rose,  swelled,  and  sank 
only  to  rise  again,  in  long  billows  of  sound, 
buoying  one's  senses  to  sensations  as  of  the 
sea,  indefinitely  vast.  Crest  after  crest  swept 
thus  over  thought,  drowning  all  reflection 
in  a  fathomless  feeling  of  its  own.  One  felt 
quite  contentedly  full  of  nothing  at  all  ;  in 
that  semi-ecstatic  state  when  discrimination 
has  lapsed  into  a  supreme  sense  of  satisfac- 
tion ;  when  the  charms  seemed  as  enchanting 
as  the  chant,  and  the  chant  as  charming  as 
the  charms.  The  portal  this  to  the  seventh 
heaven  of  vacuous  content. 

A  lull  like  a  loud  noise  broke  in  upon  our 
half-dream  when  the  maeza  stopped  to  light 
the  pyre.  As  the  flame  leaped  ceilingward 
the  chant  rose  with  it,  the  one  carrying  the 
other  up  with  it.  Tongues  of  flame  three 
feet  high   darted   ceilingward   to  transform 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 5 1 

themselves  suddenly  into  clouds  of  opal 
smoke,  that,  surging,  floated  off,  and  then 
slowly  settled  down.  Through  the  flame  the 
maeza  passed  the  written  sheets  emblematic 
of  disease ;  passed  them  as  usual  to  and  fro 
unharmed ;  till,  letting  each  stay  still  a  mo- 
ment there,  it  caught  and  was  carried  up 
into  the  crannies  of  the  room.  Many  ills  of 
life  thus  vanished  into  thin  air. 

Other  things  were  likewise  passed  through 
the  flame  to  gain  like  virtue  ;  each  man  thus 
purified  his  rosary,  with  which  he  afterward 
rubbed  what  part  of  his  body  he  wished  to 
be  pure  and  strong  ;  and  finally  the  goJiei 
itself,  for  quintessence  of  purification,  was 
taken  from  the  altar,  purified  by  the  fire,  and 
put  back  in  place. 

This  finished  the  first  service.  The  in- 
cense altar  was  then  removed,  sheets  of  pa- 
per were  spread  on  the  mats  in  its  stead,  and 
the  gohei-^dxi^  was  taken  from  the  shrine 
and  set  upright  in  the  midst.  Plain  pa- 
per !  plain  pine-wood  !  plain  pilgrim  dresses  ! 
Truly  the  neutral  tints  of  self-eflacement  as 
near  nothing  as  symbols  can  well  show ;  the 
very  apotheosis  of  vacancy. 

All   the    performers   except    the    nakaza 


152  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

now  took  post  for  the  possession,  seating 
themselves  in  the  prescribed  places,  facing 
the  goJiei ;  the  -maeza  directly  in  front  of 
it,  the  "  four  heavens "  {shiteii)  at  the  car- 
dinal points  on  the  side,  and  the  clerk  and 
the  deputy  maeza  flanking  the  maeza  to  the 
left  and  right. 

After  a  short  incantation  the  maeza  re- 
moved the  wand  and  gave  it  to  the  tdho, 
the  "eastern  heaven,"  who  held  it  ready 
in  his  hand.  The  nakaza  came  forward  and 
solemnly  seated  himself  where  Xh^  gohei  had 
been,  facing  from  the  altar.  Folding  his 
legs  under  him,  he  drew  his  robe  carefully 
round  them,  and  tied  the  ends  of  it  to- 
gether as  one  would  a  bundle-handkerchief. 
The  result  gave  him  the  look  of  certain 
rubber  toys  of  one's  extreme  childhood, 
that  began  as  a  man  and  ended  in  a  bulb. 
After  he  had  thus  arranged  himself  the 
others  did  the  same. 

For  such  is  the  conventional  Ryobu-Shinto 
attitude  during  possession.  Whether  this  by 
no  means  easy  pose  is  modeled  after  that  of 
the  contemplative  Buddha,  or  is  merely  the 
exalted  seat  of  old  Japan,  is  doubtful.  The 
two  differ  in  certain  technical  details  of  the 


INCARNATIONS.  153 

knot  that  one  ties  in  one's  legs,  and  the  knot 
is  sometimes  of  the  one  kind  and  sometimes 
of  the  other.  The  tying  is  done  to  tether 
the  possessed  that  he  may  not  prove  too 
violent  in  the  trance.  For,  as  may  be  im- 
agined, the  pose  is  one  from  which  it  is  next 
to  impossible  to  rise.  Nevertheless,  I  have 
seen  a  god  hop  round  on  this  his  pedestal 
with  astounding  agility. 

After  a  little  private  finger-twisting  and 
prayer,  the  nakaza  folded  his  hands  before 
him  and  closed  his  eyes,  the  others  of  course 
incanting.  The  maeza  took  the  wand  from 
the  toho  and  put  it  between  the  7iakazas 
hands.  The  man  at  once  fell  slowly  for- 
ward on  it,  resting  one  end  on  the  mat  and 
the  other  against  his  forehead,  near  the  hol- 
low at  the  base  of  the  nose. 

The  others  took  up  in  chorus  the  stirring 
processional  chant  known  as  the  7'okkon  sJiojo 
no  harai.  As  the  measured  cadence  rolled 
on,  suddenly  the  wand  began  to  quiver; 
and  the  chant  increased  in  energy.  Mo- 
ment by  moment  the  wand  gathered  motion 
by  fits  and  lulls,  as  when  a  storm  gathers 
out  of  a  clear  sky.  Slowly,  as  it  shook,  it 
rose  till  it  reached  his  forehead.     The  par- 


154  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

oxysm  came  on  and  then  the  wand  settled 
with  a  jerk  to  a  rigid  half-arm  holding  be- 
fore his  brow,  a  suppressed  quiver  alone  still 
thrilling  it  through.    The  god  had  come. 

The  maeza  leaned  forward,  bent  low  before 
the  outstretched  goJiei,  and  reverently  asked 
the  god's  name.  The  eyes  of  the  possessed 
had  already  opened  to  the  glassy  stare  typi- 
cal of  trances,  the  eyeballs  so  rolled  back 
that  the  pupils  were  nearly  out  of  sight.  In 
an  unnatural,  yet  not  exactly  artificial  voice, 
the  god  replied,  "  Matsuwo,"  at  which  the 
maeza  bowed  low  again,  and  then  asked  what 
questions  he  had  previously  inquired  of  me 
my  preference  to  have  put.  They  were 
about  the  health  of  those  beyond  the  sea, 
and  prognostications  for  my  approaching 
voyage.  All  of  which  were  answered  with 
Delphic  oracularity ;  after  which  the  god 
spoke  on  of  his  own  accord.  He  spoke  to 
the  maeza,  but  at  me ;  he  wished  to  thank 
me,  he  said,  for  making  the  ascent  of  the 
mountain  (Ontake)  two  years  before.  At 
which  divine  encomium,  considering  that 
the  pious  are  convinced  that  no  foreigner 
may  scale  the  sacred  peak  and  return  alive, 
I  was  proportionately  pleased. 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 5  5 

After  delivering  himself  of  this  politeness 
he  settled  forward  heavily  into  a  lethargic 
swoon.  From  it  he  was  roused  by  further 
incantation  to  fresh  fury.  Slowly  raising 
the  wand,  he  suddenly  beat  the  air  above 
his  head,  and  proceeded  to  hop  excitedly 
round  on  his  folded  legs,  stopping  at  each 
of  the  four  compass  points  to  repeat  his 
performance.  Then  he  came  back  to  his 
previous  commanding  pose,  and,  in  reply  to 
the  maeza,  spoke  again. 

Once  more  he  relapsed  into  his  lethargy, 
and  once  more  he  was  roused,  and  answered. 

When  he  had  fallen  into  his  comatose  con- 
dition for  the  third  time,  the  maeza,  after  a 
sort  of  benedicite,  made  the  sign  of  a  San- 
skrit character  on  his  back,  and  slapped  him 
energetically  on  top  of  it.  One  of  the  four 
"sides"  stood  by  ready  with  a  cup  of  water, 
and,  the  moment  he  had  come  to  enough, 
put  it  to  his  lips  and  helped  him  to  drink. 
Under  this  treatment  he  gradually  revived, 
but  it  took  some  kneading  before  the  wand 
could  be  loosed  from  his  cataleptic  grip. 

Three  gods,  it  appeared,  had  come  in  turn, 
which  accounted  for  the  rise  and  fall  in  the 
character  of  the  possession  :    Matsuwo  Sama, 


156  OCCULT  JAPAN-. 

or  0-yama-zumi-no-mikoto,  Fukan  Gyoja,  and 
Hakkai  San. 

The  last  example  of  the  Ryobu  form  shall 
be  one  typical  of  the  average  unpretentious 
trance,  the  participants  being  all  simple- 
minded  farmers  of  the  suburbs  of  Tokyo. 
There  were  five  of  them,  all  members  of  the 
Five  Cardinal  Virtues  Pilgrim  Club.  The 
shrine  was  the  simplest  possible,  and  so 
was  the  banquet  offered  the  god.  No  pic- 
ture was  hung  in  the  recess,  and  the  pyre 
was  not  elaborate. 

The  maeza  and  nakaza  had  both  been  up 
Ontake  more  than  once ;  the  other  three 
were  as  yet  ascensionless,  but  hopeful  the 
lot  to  go  might  soon  fall  upon  them,  their 
finances  having  up  to  date  only  permitted 
them  to  travel  so  far  in  fancy. 

Purification  prayers  and  purification  songs 
—  the  tnisogi  no  harai,  the  rokkon  shojo  no 
harai,  and  the  fiakatomi  no  harai  —  were  duly 
intoned,  the  nakaza  in  this  case  being  spe- 
cially active,  because  otherwise  the  leading 
spirit  of  the  company.  All  five  were  clad  in 
their  Ontake  ascension  robes,  although  the 
greater  number  were  simply,  as  has  been 
said,  piously  anticipating  that  event. 


INCARNA  TIONS.  I  5  / 

The  possession  itself  took  place  with  open 
eyes,  and  was  interesting  only  for  the  rise 
and  fall  of  its  crises.  The  wand  shook  fren- 
ziedly,  settled  before  the  man's  face,  the  god 
spoke,  and  then  with  an  agaru,  "  I  ascend," 
the  man  fell  forward  collapsed.  The  incan- 
tation began  again,  and  a  second  god  came 
down.  Five  several  times  this  cycle  was 
gone  through  before  the  possession  was 
brought  to  a  close  and  the  man  waked  up. 
Five  separate  gods  had  come  in  turn. 

VI. 

The  Buddhist  trances  introduce  a  new  fea- 
ture in  the  shape  of  femininity.  For  in  the 
Buddhist  variety  of  these  divine  possessions 
the  god  shows  a  preference  for  feminine  lips. 

The  first  one  I  was  shown  was  a  posses- 
sion by  the  Nichiren  sect.  This  is  a  sect  of 
purely  Japanese  origin,  having  been  founded 
by  Nichiren,  who  had  learned  much  of  the 
Shinto  priests  six  hundred  years  ago,  —  a 
sect  with  no  prototype  or  affiliations  else- 
where. It  is  the  Buddhist  sect  that  now 
chiefly  affects  possession.  In  this  instance 
the  mouthpiece  of  the  god  was  the  mouth  of 
a  maiden,  and  the  man  who  parleyed  with 


1 5 8  OCCUL  T  JAPAN. 

her  a  mouse-like  priest  of  a  certain  not  un- 
popular temple. 

It  too  was  a  parlor  possession  in  my  own 
house,  and  I  have  since  learned  that  in  con- 
sequence of  the  temple  company  having 
been  thus  invited  out  to  perform,  the  fame 
of  the  temple  has  gone  abroad  and  its  holy 
trade  has  amazingly  increased. 

There  were  three  persons  in  the  company. 
For  with  the  priest  and  the  maiden,  who  was 
about  eighteen,  came  a  female  friend  of 
maturer  years,  not  indeed  to  chaperone  the 
fair  one  so  soon  to  be  more  than  metaphor- 
ically divine,  but  merely  to  assist  at  the  di- 
vine audience.  The  three  all  belonged  to  a 
certain  pilgrim  club  of  which  the  priest  was 
president. 

They  appeared  with  an  extra  jinrikisha 
carrying  a  Saratoga  trunk  of  indispensables. 
To  be  fair  to  the  sex,  as  it  shows  itself  in 
Japan,  it  should  instantly  be  said  that  in 
this  case  the  baggage  was  not  chargeable  to 
it  but  to  the  god's  delight  in  pageantry,  as 
interpreted  by  the  Nichiren  sect.  The  trunk 
proved  to  contain  several  candles,  some  sa- 
kaki,  a  go/iei,  two  large  lumps  of  rice-paste 
known  as  kagamimochi,  or  mirror-dough,  va- 


INCARNA  TIONS.  I  5  9 

rious  other  objects  of  bigotry  and  virtue, 
eight  volumes  of  scripture,  vestments,  rosary, 
and  ecclesiastical  trappings  for  the  priest. 
He,  and  not  the  women,  was  the  object  to  be 
arrayed  ;  they,  poor  things,  remained  mod- 
estly clad  in  dull  indigo  blue. 

After  all  these  articles  had  been  unpacked 
and  the  priest  had  made  a  shrine  of  some  of 
them  and  had  put  on  the  rest,  he  faced  the 
altar  and  began  to  pray.  He  prayed  a  long 
time,  an  elaborate  and  beautiful  chant  in 
keeping  with  his  clothes.  A  regrettable  ab- 
sence of  finger-charms  was  made  up  for  by 
the  ingenious  way  in  which  he  managed  to 
read  through  the  whole  eight  volumes  of 
scripture.  For  want  of  a  more  consecrated 
expression  it  may  be  known  as  the  way  of 
the  concertina,  and  is  as  useful  as  it  is  ar- 
tistic. It  was  made  possible  by  the  mode 
of  binding  the  books.  Like  old  Japanese 
books  generally,  each  consisted  of  a  single 
piece  about  fifteen  yards  long,  folded  for  the 
sake  of  portability  into  pages,  the  ends  only 
being  fastened  to  the  covers.  Holding  them 
farther  apart  at  the  top  than  at  the  bottom, 
he  let  the  pages  slowly  cascade  from  his 
left  hand  into  his  right,  accompanying  him- 


l6o  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

self  thus  on  the  holy  harmonicon  to  the 
chanting  of  a  portion  of  its  contents  by 
heart.  The  fair  ones  chorused  him  at  a  re- 
spectful distance  in  the  rear. 

After  thus  adroitly  disposing  of  his  chief 
devoir,  the  priest  repeated  several  remem- 
bered prayers,  not  on  his  rosary,  but,  as  it 
were,  to  it.  For  in  the  possession  ceremony 
the  Japanese  Buddhist  uses  his  rosary  not  as 
tally  to  his  prayer,  but  as  musical  accom- 
paniment to  it.  As  he  prays  he  soothingly 
strokes  it,  and  it  purrs  with  the  gratified 
responsiveness  of  a  cat. 

All  this  lasted  a  long  while,  but  the  sights 
and  the  sounds  beguiled  the  senses  to  the 
forgetting  of  time.  When  the  priest  had 
prayed,  in  all  conscience,  enough,  he  turned 
at  right  angles  to  his  former  position,  and 
beckoned  to  the  maiden  to  approach  and 
seat  herself  opposite  to  and  facing  him,  side- 
ways, therefore,  to  the  altar.  She  then 
folded  her  hands  and  closed  her  eyes. 

First  he  sprinkled  her  all  over  with  a 
shower-bath  of  sparks  from  a  flint  and  steel ; 
after  which  he  repeated  in  a  soporific  way 
several  monotonic  chants,  and  watched  the 
effect.     When  he  judged  her  numb  enough 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 6 1 

he  put  the  goJiei-y^zxiA  into  her  hands  and 
continued  intoning,  his  own  hands  making 
musical  monotone  meanwhile  on  his  amber 
rosary. 

Possession  came  on  gradually ;  the  gohei 
behaving  in  a  becomingly  lady-like  way,  but 
otherwise  as  usual.  It  slowly  rose  to  her 
forehead,  and  on  reaching  it  began  to  shiver. 
The  maiden's  eyes  stayed  closed. 

The  priest  then  asked  what  questions  I 
would  like  to  put  to  the  god.  Some  doc- 
trinal points  occurred  to  me,  the  priest  acting 
as  spokesman.  The  god  and  the  priest  were 
pleased  with  the  answers  ;  I  was  not,  their 
conventionality  veiled  in  vagueness  failing 
to  commend  itself.  Then  the  god  indulged 
in  some  gratuitous  prophecy,  not  subse- 
quently fulfilled.  He  kindly  foretold  that  a 
week  after  my  return  to  America  I  should 
lose  a  large  amount  of  money  I  had  loaned. 
I  thanked  him  for  this  information,  thinking 
it  unnecessary  to  inform  him  that  I  had  no 
money  out  on  loan  at  the  moment,  which  is 
perhaps  why  I  never  lost  it.  But  I  realize 
that  the  fault  was  mine.  Had  I  been  a 
Japanese  the  chances  are  overwhelming  that 
most  of  my  property  would  have  been  lent ; 


1 62  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

and  in  that  case  I  should  undoubtedly  have 
lost  it.  This  is  about  as  near  as  I  ever  came 
with  the  gods  to  successful  prophecy.  And 
yet  to  divine  would  seem  to  be  of  the  very 
essence  of  divinity. 

Altogether  the  most  interesting  feature 
of  the  case,  psychologically,  was  the  great 
ease  of  possession,  due,  as  I  am  convinced, 
to  the  sex  of  the  subject.  In  possessions  by 
the  Nichiren  sect  the  god  prefers  women 
for  embodiment ;  the  only  exception  being 
the  occasional  employment  of  children  as 
divine  subjects.  For  in  this  sect  men  are 
never  possessed. 

At  another  stance  by  the  same  sect,  four 
priests  and  a  woman  took  part.  There  were 
no  finger-twistings,  and  the  service  gener- 
ally was  short  and  simple.  A  hanging  scroll 
of  Kishibojin  was  suspended  in  the  recess 
of  honor  ;  while  below  it  a  small  altar,  over- 
laid with  rich  brocade,  stood  flanked  by  two 
gohei-\^2iVi^%.  The  principal  priest  put  on 
white  silk  robes,  and  the  woman  a  white 
cotton  surplice.  At  first  she  sat  disinterest- 
edly to  one  side. 

At  the  close  of  the  preliminary  service 
the  chief  officiator  beckoned  to  her  to  take 


2 

O 

00 

<n 

U 
en 
En 

O 
Pn 

z 


3 


INCARNATIONS.  1 63 

her  seat ;  this  she  did,  passing  through  the 
row  of  priests  with  the  customary  respectful 
symboHc  scooping  of  the  hand,  and  sat  down 
in  the  midst  with  her  back  to  the  altar.  She 
closed  her  eyes ;  the  priest  made  the  sign  of 
a  Sanskrit  character  on  each  of  her  palms, 
and  then,  taking  the  two  ^^/^^z-wands,  put 
one  into  each  of  her  hands.  This  duality  of 
divine  descent  was  the  most  interesting 
feature  of  the  affair.  Twitching  ensued  al- 
most instantly,  and  was  kept  up  a  long  time 
while  the  officiator  {sluigcnjd)  prayed  on.  At 
the  close  of  it  the  priest  asked  the  god's 
name,  and  then  interviewed  him.  Then, 
after  permission  had  been  asked  by  the 
priest,  the  god  condescended  to  interviews 
with  the  rest  of  us.  Replies  would  have  been 
made  in  any  case,  the  priest  said,  but  it 
would  have  been  rude  to  the  god  not  to  have 
first  obtained  his  consent.  The  subject  was 
quite  insensible  to  pins  stuck  into  her  neck, 
but  objected  at  first  to  having  her  pulse  felt, 
pulling  her  arm  away  as  if  annoyed,  till  she 
had  been  assured  that  it  was  all  right  by  the 
priest.  Her  pulse  proved  a  trifle  faster  than 
in  her  normal  state  (no  as  against  100),  but 
decidedly  weaker. 


l64  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Although  this  is  my  first  mention  of  pins, 
I  hasten  to  add  that  I  had  already  tried 
them  with  like  innocuous  result  upon  the 
sterner  sex,  and  I  desire  to  add  in  self-de- 
fense that  it  was  the  god,  not  the  woman, 
that  was  pricked. 

After  speaking,  the  subject  lapsed  into  a 
comatose  condition,  but  could  be  roused  by 
being  addressed.  When  the  priest  had  fin- 
ished with  her  he  took  the  wands  from  her 
hands,  not  without  difficulty,  they  were  so 
cataleptically  clenched,  and  somewhat  irrev- 
erently rolled  her  over  on  her  side,  like  a 
doll,  into  a  corner,  where  he  left  her  to  wake, 
while  he  and  the  others  finished  the  service. 
By  the  time  they  were  done  she  came  to  of 
herself. 

The  facing  of  the  possessed  —  from  the 
altar  or  simply  sideways  to  it  —  is  a  matter 
dependent  on  the  particular  priest  and  upon 
the  character  of  the  god  expected  to  de- 
scend. If  the  god  be  of  more  importance 
he  sits  ex  cathedra  as  it  were ;  if  not,  simply 
ex  parte.  This  relative  disrespect  shown  by 
the  Buddhists  to  the  possessing  gods  will  be 
discussed  later. 

Such  are  the  phenomena  of  god-possession 


INCARNATIONS.  1 65 

as  practiced  by  the  Nichiren  sect.  The 
Shingon  sect  indulges  in  a  somewhat  similar 
cult,  of  which  I  have  been  told  by  its  priests, 
but  which  I  do  not  happen  to  have  seen.  The 
Tendai  practices  the  cult  but  little,  the  other 
sects  do  not  practice  it  at  all.  These  defi- 
nite possessions  must  be  carefully  distin- 
guished from  Buddhist  meditation,  which 
also  eventually  lapses  into  trance.  The  first 
may  be  defined  as  a  change  of  one's  person- 
ality into  another's  ;  the  second  as  the  ethe- 
realization  of  one's  own.  In  Japan  the  Zen 
sect  are  the  greatest  adepts  in  thus  losing 
themselves.  Meditating  one's  self  into  pro- 
toplasmic purity  is  a  specialty  of  the  Bud- 
dhists consequent  upon  the  essential  tenets 
of  their  religion,  and  has  only  a  distant  kin- 
ship in  common  with  the  purely  Japanese 
Buddhist  trances  I  have  described. 

VII. 

Oldest  of  all  and  yet  youngest  of  any  of 
the  Japanese  possessions  are  the  pure  Shinto 
ones.  For  they  took  place  in  the  far  past, 
and  then  did  not  take  place  again  till  the 
other  day.  They  form  the  most  interesting 
branch  of  the  family,  because  the  most  un- 
conventional members  of  it. 


1 66  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

In  virtue  of  being  a  part  of  pure  Shint5 
they  are  necessarily  resurrections  ;  although 
reckless  believers  now  insist  that  they  were 
always  practiced  in  secret  during  Shinto's 
unfortunate  unpopularity.  If  this  be  really 
the  case,  it  is  a  sad  instance  of  keeping  a 
secret  too  well.  For  there  is  no  mention 
made  of  them  during  the  middle  ages.  But 
in  a  sense  they  never  lapsed.  For  they  sur- 
vived in  Ryobu  —  from  whose  destruction 
they  have  phoenix-like  emerged,  as  faithful 
reproductions  of  the  prehistoric  practices  as 
is  possible.  Being  biblical  in  character,  they 
are  invested  with  a  certain  archaism  that 
imparts  to  them  all  the  more  seeming  sanc- 
tity. 

The  personal  auxiliary  rites  are  few  and 
simple ;  such  being  explained  away  on  the 
score  of  purity.  The  pure  Shintoists  are  so 
pure,  so  they  themselves  say,  that  they  do 
not  need  them.  The  striking  parallelism  of 
this  to  the  Shinto  explanation  of  its  lack  of 
a  moral  code  —  that  only  immoral  people 
need  moral  laws —  is  instructive.  Neverthe- 
less it  is  quite  true  that  the  more  faith  the 
less  formulae. 

The   finger -charms,   decidedly   the   most 


INCARNATIONS.  1 6/ 

weird  of  the  Ryobu  rites,  are  reduced  to 
such  very  low  terras  as  hardly  to  appear.  Of 
purification  prayers  only  those  of  pure  ShintS 
origin  are  recited.  Those  of  Ryobu  fabri- 
cation, such  as  the  rokkon  shbjd  no  harai, 
being  carefully  ignored. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  impersonal  part  of 
the  service  is  elaborate.     It  has  all  the  for- 
mality of  the  usual  state  function,  for  it  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  divine  ban- 
quet, with  the  god   himself  for  after-dinner 
speaker.     The  dinner  is  all-essential  to  the 
affair,  as  it  is  to  all  Shinto  rites.     For  the 
Shinto  practice  of  dining  its  deities  is  not 
confined    to    the    ceremony   of    possession. 
Wherever   the   gods   are    invoked,   for  any 
cause  whatsoever,   they  are  induced   to  de- 
scend by  the  prospect  of  a  dinner.     A  repast 
stands  perpetually   prepared  on    all    Shinto 
altars ;  shrines  being,  to  put  it  irreverently, 
free-lunch    counters   for   deity,  while   every 
Shinto  service  is  but  a  special  banquet  given 
some  particular  god.    One  comes  to  conceive 
of  a   Shint5   god's   life   as    one    continuous 
round  of  dining  out.     To  induce   an   after- 
dinner  mood  in  a  god  whom  one  wishes  to 
propitiate  is  doubtless  judicious. 


1 68  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

The  rite  is,  of  course,  the  apotheosis  of 
primitive  hospitality.  With  civilization,  how- 
ever, the  divine  dinner  has,  like  mere  mortal 
ones,  taken  on  a  most  tedious  etiquette.  It 
consists  now  of  six  or  seven  courses,  each 
of  which  is  ceremoniously  long  in  the  serving. 
The  priests,  who  are  the  waiters,  are  all  most 
beautifully  dressed,  and  stand  drawn  up  in  a 
properly  impressive  row.  After  a  sort  of 
grace,  said  by  the  chief  officiator,  the  priest 
at  the  lower  end  of  the  line  hands  in,  from 
the  refectory  behind  the  scenes,  the  first  of 
the  holy  platters,  which,  with  a  long,  deep 
bow,  he  passes  up  to  the  next  man  in  the 
line,  who  passes  it  to  the  third,  and  so  on 
till  it  reaches  the  chief  priest,  who  places  it 
reverently  upon  the  altar.  Each  dish  is  thus 
solemnly  offered  up  to  the  god  and  deposited 
upon  the  shrine  in  turn.  The  dishes  consist 
of  almost  everything  edible,  and,  considering 
that  much  of  the  food  is  raw,  of  everything 
inedible  as  well.  Wine  especially  is  always 
on  the  table,  for  the  gods  are  anything  but 
teetotalers. 

So  far  as  records  and  traditions  make  it 
possible,  the  aboriginal  cult  is  reinstated. 
Even  the  archaic  instruments  of   miscalled 


INCARNATIONS.  1 69 

music,  actual  heirlooms,  some  of  them,  it  is 
said,  in  the  high-priest's  family,  are  played 
upon  by  their  modern  descendant  as  they 
were  by  his  mythologic  forbears,  that  the 
unchangeable  gods  may  still  be  pleased.  In 
fact,  the  whole  action  is  as  nearly  as  possi- 
ble as  it  would  appear  could  one  be  trans- 
ported a  couple  of  millenniums  into  the  past. 
The  trance  itself  is  likewise  different  from 
its  Ry5bu  relative.  It  is  more  natural  and 
more  free.  The  possessed  is  not  fettered  to 
the  conventionality  of  the  Ry5bu  forms.  He 
sits,  stands,  speaks  more  spontaneously,  and 
generally  behaves  himself  with  more  of  the 
self-prompting  a  god  might  be  expected  to 
possess.  This,  however,  is  in  the  believer's 
eyes  of  less  consequence  than  the  knowledge 
of  the  scriptures  he  displays.  In  proportion 
as  he  is  able  to  elucidate  the  meagre  accounts 
in  the  Shinto  bibles,  does  he  prove  his  supe- 
rior divinity.  That  the  subject  has  been 
well  trained  in  this  old  folk-lore,  does  not,  to 
the  pious,  constitute  a  propter  hoc  in  the 
matter. 


I/O  OCCULT  JAPAN, 


VIII. 


Perhaps  the  most  curious  phenomenon  of 
the  pure  Shinto  possession-cult  is  the  Kwan- 
cho's  kindergarten.  This  is  a  Sunday-school 
of  a  unique  kind,  held  by  the  high-priest  of 
the  Shinshiu  sect  every  other  week-day 
throughout  theyear,  vacations  excepted.  The 
instruction  is  eminently  practical,  for  it  con- 
sists in  teaching  nothing  less  than  the  art 
of  temporarily  becoming  god.  It  is  the  most 
esoteric  of  all  the  possession  practices.  To 
its  exercises  I  was  never  permitted  to  bring 
another  foreigner,  my  own  purity  just  suf- 
ficing to  admit  me. 

The  school  is  composed  of  two  classes,  a 
boys'  class  and  a  girls'  class,  made  up  of  the 
most  pious  young  people  of  the  parish.  The 
boys'  class  is  held  first.  The  pupils  begin 
by  taking  post  in  a  row  at  the  farther  end 
of  the  main  temple  room,  while  the  high- 
priest  faces  the  altar  and  conducts  a  service 
in  which  the  pupils  join.  Then  he  seats  him- 
self on  one  side  and  nods  to  a  boy  to  come  for- 
ward. The  bOy  advances,  squats  in  a  divine 
attitude  before  the  altar,  and  closes  his  eyes. 
After  some  subdued  prayer  the  priest  rises, 


INCARNATIONS.  17I 

puts   the  gohei-yNdiXv^   into  the  boy's  hands, 
and,  resuming  his  seat,  plays  sweetly  on  the 
sacred  flute,  exactly  as  you  shall  read  of  its 
being  done  in  the  Kojiki ;  which  is  not  a  sur- 
prising coincidence,  since  the  action  is  copied 
from  it.     On  advanced  pupils  the  effect  is 
almost   instantaneous.     The   boy  goes    into 
convulsions,  raises  the  gohei  to  arms'  length 
above  his  head,  brandishes  it  maniacally  in 
the  air,  and  while  still  doing  so  rises  to  his 
feet  and  proceeds  to  dance  madly  about  the 
room.     In  the  course  of  his  divine  antics  he 
contrives  to  part  with  the  gohei--^2cs\^,  which 
he   hurls  inadvertently  into   a   corner.     He 
then    enters   upon    several   gymnastic  exer- 
cises.    First   he   turns    somersaults  promis- 
cuously all  over  the  floor.     Then  a  low  table 
is  brought  out  by  some  of  the  other  pupils 
and  set  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  and  over 
this,  directed  by  taps  on  it  from  the  Kwan- 
cho,  the  possessed  somersaults  in  every  pos- 
sible direction,  following  in  a  definite  order 
the  compass  points.    The  table  is  then  turned 
on   its    side,   and   he    repeats    his   series   of 
tumbles.     The   same  is  next  done  with  the 
table  turned  bottom  side  up ;  and  so  forth 
and  so  on  in  pretty  much  every  other  position 


1/2  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

of  the  furniture.  A  pupil  will  sometimes 
turn  thus  some  seventy  somersaults  in  the 
the  course  of  one  trance.  Against  the  wall 
stands  a  ladder,  up  which  the  entranced 
next  climbs  to  the  cornice,  clinging  to  which 
he  makes  the  circuit  of  the  room.  Not  in- 
frequently he  wanders  by  the  same  means 
round  all  the  neighboring  apartments.  After 
descending  again  by  the  ladder,  he  performs 
upon  a  horizontal  bar. 

Or  he  stands  on  his  head  up  against  the 
wall,  first  in  one  corner  of  the  room,  and 
then  in  another,  until  he  has  made  the  circuit 
of  it,  interpolating  between  times  somersaults 
at  his  own  sweet  will.  The  curriculum  varies 
with  the  pupil.  Though  of  the  same  general 
character  for  all,  it  differs  in  detail  for  each. 
But  each  pupil  repeats  his  own  performance 
exactly,  night  after  night,  improving  on  it 
through  a  gradual  course  of  trance-develop- 
ment. 

With  the  girls  the  action  is  fittingly  less 
violent.  They  do  not  journey  along  the  cor- 
nice, but  they  do  turn  somersaults  over  the 
floor.  Their  specialty,  however,  consists  in 
dancing  dervish-like  round  and  round  the 
room.  The  waltzing  they  keep  up  indefi- 
nitely until  stopped  by  the  priest. 


INCARNA  TIONS.  I  /  3 

All  these  actions  of  the  pupil  mean  some- 
thing. The  dance  is  the  facsimile  of  the  one 
that  the  goddess  Uzume-no-mikoto  performed 
in  the  first  recorded  possession.  Somersault- 
ing over  the  floor  represents  the  natural  rev- 
olution of  all  things ;  while  somersaulting 
over  the  table  denotes  visits  paid  to  the 
upper  and  the  under  world.  Standing  on 
one's  head  in  the  corner  with  one's  legs 
straight  up  against  the  wall  implies  posses- 
sion by  the  spirit  of  a  climbing  plant. 

Before  one  pupil  has  finished,  a  second  is 
started  on  his  career,  and  then  sometimes  a 
third,  which,  considering  the  violence  of  their 
actions,  very  decidedly  peoples  the  apart- 
ment. The  girls  are  as  decent  as  dervishes, 
but  as  to  the  boys,  dancing  dervdshes  are 
orderly,  intelligent  members  of  society  by 
comparison.  It  is  irresponsibility  let  loose. 
For  they  hurl  themselves  about  the  apart- 
ment with  as  utter  a  disregard  of  others  as  of 
themselves.  Yet,  though  they  often  collide, 
they  seem  to  regard  each  other  as  strictly 
inanimate  things.    , 

Though  it  is  doubtful  if  they  see  at  all,  it 
is  certain  that  they  can  hear  the  Kwancho, 
who  occasionally  warns  them  to  be  careful. 


174  OCCULT  japan: 

With  the  exception  of  thus  occasionally  ad- 
dressing them  and  of  tapping  the  table  or 
the  wall,  he  does  not  direct  their  movements 
in  the  least.  Such  half-way  stage  between 
hypnotic  and  possessed  action  is  an  interest- 
ing thing  in  itself. 

The  subject's  pulse  is  accelerated  and 
weakened,  so  far  as  I  could  discover  by  feel- 
ing it  immediately  afterward. 

Though  adepts  quickly  fall  into  the  state, 
it  takes  practice  to  attain  to  pious  profi- 
ciency, several  sittings  being  necessary  be- 
fore the  pupil  is  possessed  at  all. 

IX. 

We  now  come  to  the  subjective  side  of  the 
trance,  the  first  point  being  the  getting  into 
it ;  the  cause,  that  is,  as  distinguished  from 
its  occasion.  Entrance  is  effected,  in  fact, 
in  the  simplest  possible  manner.  It  consists 
in  shutting  the  eyes  and  thinking  of  nothing. 
From  the  moment  the  nakaza  takes  the 
^<?//^/-wand  into  his  hands,  at  which  time  it 
will  be  remembered  he  closes  his  eyes,  he 
mukes  his  mind  as  much  of  a  blank  as  he  can. 

The  ability  to  think  of  nothing  —  not  the 
simple  matter  even  to  the  innately  empty- 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 7  5 

headed  it  might  be  imagined  —  has  been 
increased  by  the  previous  etherealizing  pro- 
cess of  the  austerities.  The  routine  ritual 
indulged  in  just  prior  to  the  act,  or  rather 
the  non-act,  furthers  this  pious  result.  The 
repeating  of  the  purification  prayers  has  be- 
come so  purely  mechanical  a  process  that 
saying  them  is  tantamount  to  not  thinking. 
Nakasa,  quite  unmindful  of  the  doubtful  pro- 
priety of  the  remark,  have  informed  me  that 
the  two  are  the  same  thing.  They  do  not 
think  of  anything,  they  say,  after  they  have 
once  sat  down  to  the  ceremony,  though  they 
are,  patently,  as  busy  as  they  can  be  reeling 
off  the  prayers.  So  true  is  this  that  a  nakaza 
will  at  times  begin  to  go  off  inopportunely  in 
the  midst  of  the  preliminary  rites  and  have  to 
be  brought  back  from  his  divine  digression 
by  a  rousing  cuff  from  the  maeza. 

Some  nakaza,  in  order  the  easier  to  enter 
the  trance,  rest  one  end  of  the  goJiei-v^'AXi^ 
upon  the  ground,  and,  leaning  forward,  throw 
their  weight  upon  the  other,  pressed  against 
the  forehead  at  the  base  of  the  nose  be- 
tween the  eyes.  The  act  is  thought  to  be 
helpful  to  a  speedy  possession.  It  is  an  in- 
teresting   fact    that    this    zone    hypnotiqiie 


176  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

should  have  been  discovered  experimentally 
by  the  Japanese  long  before  the  thing  was 
scientifically  known  to  Europe.  Not  all  sub- 
jects, however,  make  use  of  it.  Some  simply 
rest  one  end  of  the  wand  on  the  floor  and 
then  lean  upon  it ;  some  do  not  even  rest  it 
on  the  floor,  but  hold  it  before  them  in  the 
air.  These  various  devices  are  matter  of  tra- 
ditional practice  with  particular  pilgrim  clubs. 

Easy  as  vacuity  gets  to  be  to  those  who 
can  give  their  whole  mind  to  it,  the  acqui- 
sition of  such  capacity  is  by  no  means  an 
instantaneous  affair,  as  the  history  of  one 
earnest  applicant  for  inanity  from  his  first 
failure  to  his  first  success  vi^ill  suffice  to 
show. 

After  having  duly  reduced  himself  by  pro- 
tracted austerities  to  sufficient  abstraction, 
he  was  set  one  evening  in  the  nakaza's  seat. 
Ranged  round  him  sat  the  regular  company 
incanting.  He  closed  his  eyes  and  the  gohei- 
wand  was  put  into  his  hands.  From  that 
moment  he  tried  to  make  his  mind  as  blank 
as  possible.  The  result  the  first  evening  was 
simple  nausea.  It  is  not,  perhaps,  to  be  won- 
dered at,  that  his  first  dose  of  divinity  should 
disagree  with  a  man. 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 7  7 

The  man's   second  attempt  the  following 
evening  led  to  a  like  sickening  result,  but 
the   unpleasant    effect   was   a   thought   less 
acute.     So  it  was  on  the  third  evening  and 
the  fourth,  and  in  this  half-seas-over  state 
between  man  and  god  he  continued  to  re- 
main for  fifteen  consecutive  nights,  the  nau- 
sea less  at  each  repetition  of  its  cause.     At 
last,  at  the  fifteenth  sitting,  his  perseverance 
was  rewarded.     He  entered  the  holy  ring  as 
usual    and    remembers    hearing   the    others 
repeating  the  prayers  fainter  and  yet  more 
faint,    like    singers   departing   into    the   dis- 
tance, and  then  he  was  aware  of  being  rudely 
and  irrelevantly  shaken  by  the  rest.     They 
were  bringing  him  to.     Possession  had  been 
like  the  unconscious  dropping  off  to  sleep ; 
coming  to  himself  again  like  waking  in  the 
morning,   only  that  he  felt  dull   and  tired. 
He  was  told  by  the  company  that  he  had 
nodded,  brandished  the  wand,  and  become 
perfectly  rigid. 

Subjects,  when  catechized  more  curiously 
as  to  the  feeling  of  lapsing  into  the  trance, 
indulged  in  variously  opposite  analogies. 
One  likened  it  to  the  sensation  that  creeps 
over  a  man  after  long  immersion  in  the  hon- 


1/8  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

orable  hot  water,  a  luxurious  soaking  in  a 
bath  of  the  parboiling  temperature  of  one 
hundred  and  ten  degrees  or  more  Fahrenheit ; 
a  simile  by  some  degrees  too  ardent  to  con- 
vey much  idea  of  insensibility  ro  Europeans, 
but  which  commends  itself  as  expressive  to 
Japanese.  Another  individual  said  it  felt 
like  going  up  in  a  balloon.  This  daringly 
inflated  simile  turned  out  a  pure  flight  of 
fancy,  as  on  further  questioning  it  appeared 
that  the  speaker  had  never  been  up  in  one. 
But,  inasmuch  as  his  audience  had  not  either, 
his  definition  was  considerably  more  definite 
than  if  he  had  made  ever  so  many  ascents. 
A  third  man  averred  that  it  was  like  being 
drowned  and  then  being  brought  to  life 
again  ;  a  clever  hit,  this,  though  I  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  he  had  had,  any 
more  than  the  other,  personal  experience  of 
his  comparison.  Still  another  described  all 
sounds  as  seeming  to  go  a  long  way  off ; 
while  a  last  adept  said  that  when  he  lapsed 
into  the  supreme  of  meditation,  a  condition 
akin  to  that  of  being  possessed,  ordinary 
noises  ceased  to  be  audible,  and  yet  in  win- 
ter he  could  hear  the  water  freeze. 

Of  the  trance  itself  most,  if  not  all,  of  the 


INCARNATIONS.  1 79 

possessed  remember  afterwards  nothing. 
One  man  indeed  said  that  it  was  Hke  dream- 
ing, only  more  vague,  —  the  dream  of  a 
dream,  which  certainly  is  very  vague,  indeed. 
Even  here  I  think  he  mistook  the  feelings 
fringing  the  trance  state  for  the  trance  state 
itself.  For  certainly  the  average  good  na- 
kaza  is  quite  emphatic  on  the  point,  and  this 
particular  man  was  not  a  specially  able  spe- 
cimen. 

All  agree  in  the  sense  of  oppression  which 
is  their  last  bit  of  consciousness  before  going 
off  and  their  first  on  coming  to.  It  is  for 
this  the  inaeza  slaps  the  nakaza  repeatedly 
on  the  back  at  and  after  the  moment  of  wak- 
ing. The  throat  is  so  throttled  that  unless 
this  were  done  the  water  could  not  be  swal- 
lowed. As  for  the  water  itself,  it  is  taken 
for  much  the  same  reason  that  some  people 
take  it  when  about  to  swallow  a  pill,  to  over- 
come, that  is,  the  involuntary  contraction  of 
the  glottis. 

Possession  begins,  they,  say,  at  the  gohei. 
The  hands  that  hold  it  are  the  first  parts  of 
the  man  to  be  possessed.  In  the  incipient 
cases  they  are  all  that  are  visibly  afifected. 
As  the  control  deepens  the  cataleptic  condi- 


l80  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

tion  creeps,  on  like  paralysis,  till  it  involves 
all  of  the  body  not  actually  in  use  by  the 
god. 

Possession  ends  much  as  it  begins.  The 
subject's  arms  and  hands  are  the  last  part  of 
him  to  lose  their  induced  catalepsy.  After 
the  man  is  well  waked  and  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  himself  again,  it  is  difficult  to  take 
the  wand  away  from  him.  Only  after  being 
rubbed  and  kneaded  will  the  fingers  let  go 
their  hold. 

In  the  trance  itself  the  anaesthesia  is  usu- 
ally marked.  I  have  repeatedly  stuck  pins 
into  the  entranced  at  favorably  sensitive 
spots  without  the  god's  being  aware  of  the 
pricks.  In  some  cases,  however,  where  I 
had  otherwise  no  reason  to  suspect  fraud, 
the  pin  was  felt.  So  that  apparently  want 
of  feeling  is  not  invariably  produced  in  the 
state ;  but  it  is  certainly  a  usual  concomi- 
tant of  it. 

The  pulse  is  quickened  to  a  varying  extent. 
This  appears  to  be  rather  a  symptom  of  the 
entrance  into  the  state  than  of  the  trance  it- 
self, and  is  doubtless  due  to  the  exertion  and 
excitement  of  the  preliminary  rites.  The 
significant  symptom  of  the  actual  possession 


INCARNATIONS.  l8l 

is  the  pulse's  very  decided  weakening.  The 
performers  themselves  state  that  it  stops. 
It  comes  very  near  it,  I  have  explored  the 
wrist  of  an  entranced  during  possession  for  a 
long  time  only  to  find  an  occasional  flutter. 
But  the  most  important  feature  of  this  failure 
of  the  pulse  consists  in  the  way  in  which  it 
keeps  step  inversely  with  the  rise  in  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  possession.  The  pulse  grows 
feeble  in  proportion  as  the  trance  action 
grows  strong,  and  tends  to  go  out  completely 
when  possession  attains  its  height.  When 
the  subject  falls  forward  into  his  comatose 
condition  the  pulse  returns.  The  perform- 
ers themselves  are  perfectly  aware  of  this 
reciprocal  relation  between  the  man's  vitality 
and  the  god's.  When  the  entranced's  pulse 
was  being  felt  I  have  known  a  whole  com- 
pany to  redouble  the  energy  of  their  incan- 
tation in  order  thus  to  keep  the  possession 
at  its  height  and  so  cause  the  pulse  to  go 
out. 

During  the  height  of  the  possession  the 
subject's  body  is  in  constant  subdued  quiver  ; 
evidence  of  the  same  nervous  thrill  that  pro- 
duces the  initial  spasm.  Not  till  the  coma- 
tose condition   comes   on   does   this   cease. 


l82  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

And  it  is  capable  of  being  revived  to  greater 
or  less  fury  by  reincantation,  at  any  moment. 

At  the  time  the  subject  consigns  himself 
to  vacating  his  bodily  premises  he  shuts  his 
eyes,  thus  closing  the  shutters  of  the  house 
his  spirit  is  so  soon  to  leave ;  and  the  blinds 
stay  drawn  till  the  spirit  has  passed  away 
and  the  coming  on  of  the  spasm  indicates  the 
advent  of  the  god.  At  his  entrance  the  eye- 
lids are,  in  some  cases,  raised  again  {ganibi- 
raki),  revealing  that  glassy  stare  peculiar  to 
the  trance  ;  in  others  they  still  remain  drawn. 
Which  they  shall  do  is  matter  of  tradition  in 
the  subject's  pilgrim  club.  If  the  eyes  open 
—  as  also  doubtless  if  they  do  not  — the  eye- 
balls are  rolled  up  so  that  the  iris  is  half  out 
of  sight ;  the  lids  quiver  but  never  wink. 
By  those  who  open  their  eyes,  the  not  doing 
so  is  denounced  as  conducive  to  shams.  It 
is  certainly  easier  to  sham  with  the  eyes 
shut,  if  indeed  the  peculiar  look  of  an  en- 
tranced's  eye  can  be  counterfeited  at  all. 
Nevertheless,  such  as  shut  their  eyes  to  the 
act  deem  their  way  equally  convincing. 

Beside  opening  or  not-opening  his  eyes  in 
the  trance,  dependent  upon  the  habit  of  his 
club,  the  subsequent  action  of  the  possessed 


INCARNATIONS.  1 83 

is  Otherwise  conventional.  The  behavior  of 
one  god  bears  a  striking  family  likeness  to 
that  of  another.  Each  begins  by  brandish- 
ing maniacally  the  ^^/^^/-vvand,  and  after  suf- 
ficient flourish  brings  it  down  to  the  com- 
manding holding  before  the  brow  which 
betokens  that  he  is  ready  to  be  interviewed. 
He  is  then  invariably  first  asked  his  name, 
which  would  seem  to  be  a  polite  formality, 
since  god-experts  say  they  can  tell  which 
god  has  come  by  the  manner  alone  in  which 
he  brandishes  the  gohei-^^zxid^.  Gods  are  as 
easily  told  apart  as  men,  when  you  know 
them.  Their  general  resemblance  is  due  to 
their  divinity  ;  their  slight  individuality  is 
their  own. 

The  conventional  character  of  the  actions 
of  the  entranced  is  of  course  no  sign  of 
shamming.  To  mistake  such  for  fraud  is  to 
be  one's  own  dupe.  His  actions  are  but  the 
unconscious  assimilation  of  precedent  be- 
come stereotyped  into  trance  habit,  just  as 
artless  a  thing  as  any  everyrday  habit.  One 
might  make  a  more  serious  mistake  and  take 
for  necessary  symptoms  of  the  Japanese 
trance  these  mere  adventitious  adjuncts  of  it, 
due  to  auto-suggestion  at  first  and  then  per- 


1 84  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

petuated  unintentionally,  as  the  Salpetriere 
did  with  those  it  first  innocently  induced  in 
its  hypnotic  patients,  and  then  as  innocently 
marveled  at  afterward.  Some  symptoms, 
nevertheless,  are  quite  universal  —  those 
connected  wuth  the  ^^//^/- wand.  The  way  in 
which  this  is  treated  is  common  to  pure 
Shint5,  Ry6bu-Shint5,  and  Buddhist  per- 
formance alike,  the  action  only  differing  in 
degree.  On  the  other  hand,  the  tying  up  of 
the  legs  of  the  entranced  is  essentially  a 
Ry5bu  practice,  not  being  a  detail  of  the 
higher  forms  of  pure  Shinto  possession  nor 
of  that  of  the  women  subjects  of  the  Bud- 
dhists. 

Shamming  is  not  so  important  a  matter  as 
it  might  seem,  because  of  its  ease  of  detec- 
tion. Shams  there  are  in  plenty,  which  is 
scarcely  surprising  when  we  consider  the 
great  vogue  the  act  of  possession  enjoys. 
But  such  are  easily  exploded.  An  unex- 
pected pin  in  a  tender  part  of  the  possessed's 
body  instantly  does  the  business.  For  a 
god  is  sublimely  superior  to  being  made  a 
pin-cushion  of,  while  a  mere  man  invariably 
objects  to  it.  The  difficulty,  indeed,  lies  not 
in  detecting  the  counterfeit  but  in  failing  to 


INCARNA  TIOXS.  1 8  5 

detect  the  reality.  To  a  sufficiently  incred- 
ulous eye  the  sham  very  rarely  masquerades, 
successfully,  while  the  genuine  article,  if  very 
perfect,  often  seems  too  good  to  be  true. 
Especially  is  this  the  case  with  woman. 
One  doubts  her  divinity  at  the  time  only  to 
realize  afterward  that  he  has  done  the  lady 
an  injustice.  — 

Though  the  god  in  these  incarnations  is 
thus  born,  not  made,  he  has  after  birth  to  go 
through  a  natural  process  of  development  to 
reach  his  full  capabilities. 

His  gradual  self-education  would  be  inter- 
esting to  witness  did  it  not  take  so  long. 
The  history  of  a  boy  about  ten  and  a  half 
years  old  whom  I  was  privileged  to  observe 
in  the  course  of  his  divine  education  will  give 
some  idea  of  the  laboriousness  of  the  pro- 
cess. He  began  practicing  to  be  possessed 
on  July  17;  that  is  he  was  then  first  set  in 
the  nakazd s  seat,  and  the  gohei-vizxi^  put  into 
his  hands  while  he  shut  his  eyes  and  tried 
to  make  his  mind  as  blank  as  possible.  This 
performance  he  went  through  five  times 
every  day  from  that  time  on,  twice  in  the 
morning  and  three  times  at  night.  It  was 
at  the  end  of  August  when  the  god  at  last 


1 86  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

descended  and  possessed  him.  At  first  the 
god  did  nothing  but  brandish  the  gohei- 
wand.  Gradually  he  learned  to  grunt.  When 
I  first  saw  the  boy  in  the  latter  part  of 
September,  the  god  had  got  far  enough 
along  to  grunt  quite  imposingly.  I  saw  him 
asrain  on  October  28.    The  sounds  had  taken 

o 

on  some  form.  He  could  then  articulate  so 
that  you  thought  he  spoke  what  it  was  your 
fault  not  to  understand!  By  the  middle  of 
November,  I  was  told,  he  would  speak  dis- 
tinctly. 

The  development  of  the  voice  is  always 
an  acquired  art ;  dumb  possession  preceding 
the  ability  to  converse  in  the  trance.  It 
takes  the  god  no  inconsiderable  time  to 
learn  to  talk.  When  he  does  do  so  the 
tone  is  peculiar.  It  is  not  the  man's  natu- 
ral voice,  but  a  stilted,  cothurnus  sort  of 
voice,  one  which  a  god  might  be  supposed 
to  use  in  addressing  mere  mortals.  It 
would  be  theatrical  were  it  not  sincere. 
It  is  the  man's  unconscious  conception  of 
how  a  god  should  talk,  and  commends  itself 
artistically  to  the  imagination. 

The  possessory  gods  present  certain  inter- 
esting characteristics.    In  the  first  place  they 


INCARNATIONS.  1 8/ 

are  of  either  sex.  This  follows  from  the  fact 
that  in  Japan  sex  suffers  no  social  restric- 
tions among  the  gods,  as  in  olden  times  it 
suffered  none  among  men.  Goddesses  are 
both  numerous  and  influential.  Practically 
the  highest  god  in  the  Shinto  pantheon  is 
a  lady,  the  Sun-Goddess  Ama-terasu-o-mi- 
kami.  The  earth  deity  worshiped  as  the 
principal  god  at  the  second  Ise  shrine  is 
also  a  goddess.  For  in  Shinto  is  realized 
the  idea  of  the  advanced  woman's  right's 
wife,  who,  on  sending  her  husband  shop- 
ping one  day  to  match  a  piece  of  ribbon, 
said  to  him,  as  a  parting  injunction,  "  If  you 
are  in  doubt,  pray  to  God,  and  She  will  help 
you. 

Woman  continued  a  power  after  she  had 
ceased  to  be  divine.  Japanese  history  boasts 
of  several  empresses  who,  chivalry  apart, 
have  played  on  the  whole  its  most  promi- 
nent parts.  The  Empress  Jingo  is  perhaps 
the  most  striking  figure  in  the  imperial  line, 
not  excluding  her  son,  who  was  canonized  as 
the  god  of  war. 

When  it  comes  to  possession  it  is  there- 
fore not  surprising  that  femininity  should 
be  found  to  have  a  hand  in  it.     In  the  olden 


1 88  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

time  both  possessors  and  possessees  were 
notably  of  the  sex,  as  we  shall  see  when  we 
come  to  examine  the  Shinto  bibles  later. 

Nowadays  possession  is  chiefly  confined  to 
males  on  both  sides.  Still  there  are  plenty 
of  exceptions  in  both  parties  to  the  business. 
It  is  not  uncommon  for  a  goddess  to  descend 
sandwiched  in  between  a  lot  of  gods.  In 
such  event  the  voice  of  the  entranced  changes 
to  suit  the  sex.  The  sex  of  the  subject  does 
not  seem  to  signify  ;  goddesses  not  being 
particularly  partial  to  men,  nor  particularly 
averse  to  their  own  sex.  Male  deities  usu- 
ally descend  upon  both  sexes  indifferently, 
simply  because  they  are  more  numerous 
than  female  ones. 

Sex,  however,  is  not  surprising  in  divinity. 
But  there  is  one  point  about  these  possessory 
gods  in  which  they  come  much  nearer  being 
unique,  and  in  which  they  are  certainly  not 
specially  feminine  —  in  their  willingness  to 
share  their  subject.  Shinto  possessions  are 
remarkable  for  the  multiplicity  of  gods  that 
deign  to  descend  in  one  and  the  same  trance. 
Such  divine  copartnership  is  of  course  suc- 
cessive, since  otherwise  it  would  not  be  per- 
sonal possession  at  all,  but  a  mere  composite 


INCARNATIONS.  1 89 

blur  of  divinity,  quite  unrecognizable  for  any- 
body in  particular.  The  communistic  char- 
acter of  the  possession  is  as  singular  as  the 
constituents  to  it  are  many.  Rarely  does 
one  god  monopolize  the  trance.  Usually  from 
three  to  a  dozen  descend  in  turn.  As  each 
descends,  the  activity  of  the  possession  rises 
from  lethargy  to  somnambulistic  action  ;  the 
possessed  acts,  speaks,  is  the  god.  Then, 
when  the  god  departs,  he  sinks  forward  into 
a  comatose  condition  from  which  the  next 
god  rouses  him.  Each  god  stays  but  five 
minutes  or  so,  and  this  five-minute  rule  in 
speaking  produces  a  wave-like  rise  and  fall 
in  the  character  of  the  possession,  by  which 
it  becomes  possible  to  count  the  number  of 
the  divine  visitors. 

Contrary  to  what  might  be  thought  prob- 
able, the  same  god  very  rarely,  if  ever,  re- 
turns in  the  same  trance.  To  have  come 
once,  instead  of  being  reason  for  coming 
again  is  reason  for  the  reverse,  which  cer- 
tainty shows  a  praiseworthy  regard  on  the 
part  of  the  god  not  to  monopolize  his  sub- 
ject. 

Although  neither  the  subject  nor  any  one 
else  knows  beforehand  what  particular  gods 


1 90  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

will  descend  in  any  one  trance,  a  certain 
clique  of  gods  usually  frequents  any  one 
man.  What  the  divine  set  shall  be  depends 
upon  what  gods  the  man  is  intimate  with  in 
his  normal  state.  One  man's  familiar  spirits 
will  thus  consist  of  the  various  Inari,  gods 
of  agriculture  ;  another's  of  defunct  and  dei- 
fied gydja,  pious  hermits  who  lived  much  in 
the  mountains,  and  are  particularly  famil- 
iar with  the  peaks ;  a  third's  of  the  higher 
Shinto  divinities.  Each  is  visited  by  his  in- 
timates ;  his  pious  proclivities  determining 
with  whom  he  may  stand  upon  calling 
terms. 

Such  an  impersonal  thread  of  godhead 
upon  which  each  particular  god's  personality 
is  strung,  running  in  this  manner  through 
the  trance,  reveals  very  strikingly  the  pecul- 
iar characteristic  of  these  people  —  their 
impersonality.  It  shows  how  deep  ingrained 
that  impersonality  is,  that  after  his  sense  of 
self  has  entirely  left  the  man,  the  essential 
quality  of  that  self,  its  lack  of  it,  still  lingers 
behind.  It  reminds  one  in  a  serious  way  of 
the  problem  of  the  sand-bank  with  the  hole 
in  it.  The  sea  comes  up  and  washes  away 
the  sand-bank ;  does  the  hole  remain  ?    Here 


INCARNA  TIONS.  1 9 1 

apparently  it  does.  For  though  vacuity 
alone  is  left  to  be  filled  by  deity,  the  form 
of  that  vacuity  reappears  in  the  god.  The 
mould  is  still  there  to  shape  the  new  tenant 
after  all  that  was  moulded  in  it  has  crum- 
bled away. 

So  closes  my  presentation  of  the  pheno- 
mena of  this  strange  possession-cult.     Before 
passing  on  to  interpret  the  noumena  behind 
them,  there   remains  to  be  given  some  ac- 
count of  a  custom  intimately  associated  with 
them,  the  pilgrim  clubs.      After  that  prop- 
erly   comes   the   proof   of    their   essentially 
Japanese  character.     But  I  cannot  take  my 
leave  of  the  phenomena  themselves  without 
hoping   there    may  linger  with    the    reader 
some     impression,    however    faint,    of    the 
simple  beauty  of  the  Shint5  faith.     For  in 
an   emotional    sense  it  is  the  very  essence 
of    what    makes    far -eastern    life    so    fine. 
Mere   outline  of   a  faith  as   Shint5  at   first 
sight  seems  to  be,  on  closer  study  it  proves 
to    be    something    little    less    than     grand 
in  its   very  simplicity.     Truly   it  needs  no 
formal  priesthood,  no  elaborate  service,  no 
costly  shrine,  for  it  has  as  visibly  about  it 
something  better  than  all  these  — its  very 


192  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

gods.  To  Shinto  they  are  always  there  ;  and 
the  great  cryptomeria  groves  no  longer  seem 
untenanted,  the  plain,  bare  buildings  no 
longer  lack  a  host ;  for  at  any  instant  they 
may  be  pervaded  by  a  presence,  the  presence 
of  the  incarnate  spirit  of  the  god. 


PILGRIMAGES   AND   THE   PILGRIM 
CLUBS. 

I. 

JIVERY  traveler  in  Japan  will  have 
been  struck  by  a  singular  yet  well- 
nigh  universal  appendage  to  the 
country  inn  :  a  motley  collection  of  cloths 
dangling  from  short  fishing-poles  stuck  into 
the  eaves  in  one  long  line  before  the  entire 
inn-front.  Unlike  as  they  otherwise  are,  the 
greater  part  agree  in  displaying  at  the  top 
the  conventional  far -eastern  symbol  that 
passes  for  a  peak. 

From  their  general  shape,  size,  and  stamp- 
ing, the  stranger  will  take  them,  at  first  blush, 
for  the  towels  of  the  guests  hung  out  in 
all  innocence  to  dry,  though  their  inordinate 
number  slightly  tax  the  credit  of  even  Japan- 
ese tubability.  Sojourn  at  the  inn,  how- 
ever, will  shortly  dispel  this  illusion  by  show- 
ing them  to  be  fixtures,  a  permanent  part  of 
the  real  estate  of  the  establishment. 


194  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Forced  to  change  his  idea  as  to  their  char- 
acter, the  unenlightened  will  next  conceive 
them  to  be  some  novel  inn  allurement,  a  sort 
of  preposterous  bait  of  landlord  ingenuity, 
dangled  thus  to  catch  the  public  eye.  Sec- 
ularly speaking,  both  inferences  are  correct. 
For  they  were  towels,  and  are  bait,  but  not 
of  landlord  invention.  They  are  the  ho-no- 
temigiii  or  gift  towels  of  the  pilgrim  clubs. 

Once  they  were  quite  simply  towels,  be- 
stowed ingenuously  upon  the  inn  as  tokens 
of  favor  by  clubs  that  chanced  to  put  up 
at  it  and  be  pleased;  just  as  ladies  in  tour- 
ney times  cast  their  hand-kerchiefs  to  their 
knightly  choice.  Not  having  handkerchiefs, 
the  Japanese  presented  as  keepsakes  their 
towels  instead,  rather  the  more  romantic 
souvenir  of  the  two. 

But  towels  they  are  no  longer.  Time  has 
raised  them  above  domestic  service.  They 
are  now  a  sort  of  club  advertisement  and 
guide-book  combined.  For  though  they  are 
presented  to  the  inn,  they  are  presented  for 
the  benefit  of  those  presenting  them.  Each 
bears  conspicuously  the  club  name  and  ad- 
dress, and  is  left  with  the  landlord  to  be 
displayed   for  sign  to  subsequent   brethren 


PILGRIMAGES.  I95 

that  this  is  where  the  club  puts  up.     It  is 
the  inn  asterisk  in  the  pilgrim  Baedeker. 

The  pilgrims  are  very  free  with  these  cer- 
tificates of  club  satisfaction.  On  any  fairly 
good  inn  you  shall  count  from  fifty  to  an 
hundred  of  them,  and  with  hostelries  of  ex- 
ceptional entertainment  the  inn's  eaves  fail 
to  accommodate  all  its  pious  indorsements, 
and  stout  poles  planted  in  the  street  in  front 
fly  the  overplus.  Landlords  spare  no  pains 
to  display  them,  for  the  pilgrim  patronage 
is  individually  not  unlavish,  and  collectively 
is  enormously  large. 

The  sight  of  such  banner-bedizened  inns 
will  probably  be  the  foreigner's  first  intro- 
duction to  Japanese  pilgrims,  unless  the  , 
equally  striking  spectacle  of  itinerants  dis- 
tinguished by  —  and  well-nigh  extinguished 
under  —  huge  toad-stool  hats  have  already 
caused  him  to  mark  such  plants  as  men 
walking.  Once  recognized,  he  will  find  both 
phenomena  everywhere,  for  they  form  a 
regular  part  of  the  scenery. 

Now  some  of  these  pilgrim  clubs  turn  out 
to  play  a  most  important  role  in  god-posses- 
sion, being,  in  fact,  clubs  for  the  purpose. 
Some  general  account  of  them  becomes, 
therefore,  germane  to  our  subject. 


196  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

To  one  of  a  poetic  turn  of  thought  the 
very  name  Shinto  or  the  "  Way  of  the  Gods  " 
pictures  one  long  pilgrimage  from  earth  to 
heaven.  But  such  poesy  is  after  all  profane, 
the  "way"  here  being  as  un vividly  viewed 
by  its  followers  as  are  the  thousand  and 
one  other  ways  of  the  world  by  those  who 
pursue  them.  Nevertheless,  pilgrimages  are 
more  than  foot-notes  to  its  creed. 

Probably  at  no  time  and  among  no  people 
have  pilgrimages  been  so  popular  as  in  this 
same  nineteenth  century  in  Japan,  temporary 
excitements  like  the  crusades  excepted.  Even 
the  yearly  caravan  of  the  Mahometan  world 
to  Mecca,  though  it  draw  from  greater  dis- 
tances and  be  invested  with  more  pomp,  does 
not  imply  so  complete  a  habit.  Every  Japan- 
ese is  a  pilgrim  at  heart,  though  every  sum- 
mer fail  to  find  him  actually  on  the  march. 
Poverty  compels  him  to  do  his  plodding  at 
home.  Want  of  funds  alone  seems  to  stand 
in  the  way  of  the  nation's  taking  the  road  in 
a  body  from  the  middle  of  July  to  the  first  of 
September.  As  it  is,  the  country's  thorough- 
fares at  that  season  are  beaded  with  folk 
wending  their  way  to  some  shrine  or  other. 

Now   there   are    three  points  worth    not- 


PILGRIMAGES.  197 

ing  about  these  pilgrimages.  The  first  is 
that  the  impulse  to  them  is  emphatically 
of  the  people.  Like  so  many  Japanese  traits, 
art  for  instance,  the  pilgrim  spirit  is  not  an 
endowment  of  the  upper  classes,  but  the 
birthright  of  everybody.  Indeed,  it  is  chiefly 
the  simple  who  go  on  pilgrimages,  the  gentle 
not  being  sufificiently  given  to  walking. 

The  next  feature  is  their  purely  national 
character.  Their  patronage  is  quite  insular. 
Their  goals  draw  no  devotees  from  outre  7ner. 
Buddhist  though  some  of  them  be,  no  con- 
tingent ever  crosses  from  China  or  Korea  to 
visit  them.  On  the  other  hand,  to  the  more 
famous  of  them  pilgrims  flock  from  all  over 
Japan.  ]\Ien  from  one  end  of  the  empire 
meet  there  men  from  the  other,  and  from  all 
points  in  between  ;  a  fact  which  in  the  eyes 
of  the  pilgrims  adds  greatly  to  the  pleasure 
of  the  pilgrimage,  since  socially  it  is  journey- 
ing the  whole  length  of  the  land  by  only 
going  part  way.  Regard  for  the  smaller 
shrines  is  naturally  bounded  by  a  narrower 
horizon.  But  considering  that  till  within  ten 
years  the  means  of  conveyance  were  one's 
own  feet,  the  attraction  of  even  these  lesser 
load-stars  is  felt  surprisingly  far. 


198  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

That  the  pilgrim  spirit  is  thus  in  a  twofold 
sense  wholly  national,  —  first  in  the  sense  of 
only,  and  then  in  the  sense  of  all,  —  implies 
one  important  fundamental  fact :  that  Japan- 
ese pilgrimages  are  not  of  Buddhist  but  of 
Shint5  origin.  It  is  the  first  hint  of  the  ground- 
lessness of  the  Buddhist  claims  to  spiritual 
ownership  in  the  mountain-tops,  all  of  which 
they  assert  they  first  made  accessible  to 
mankind.  But  in  spite  of  the  very  catholic 
character  of  the  pretension,  the  right  to  such 
eminent  domain  grows  airier  and  airier  the 
closer  we  scrutinize  it.  The  Buddhist  idea, 
like  the  early  Christian,  seems  to  have  been, 
when  confronted  by  a  strong  popular  super- 
stition :  Baptize  it  at  once. 

The  third  peculiarity  about  these  pilgrim- 
ages consists  in  their  being  probably  the 
most  unreligious  in  the  world.  Speaking 
profanely,  they  are  peripatetic  picnic  parties, 
faintly  flavored  with  piety;  just  a  sufficient 
suspicion  of  it  to  render  them  acceptable  to 
the  easy-going  gods.  For  a  more  mundanely 
merry  company  than  one  of  these  same  pil- 
grim bands  it  would  be  hard  to  meet,  and  to 
put  up  at  an  inn  in  their  neighborhood  is  to 
seem   bidden  to  a  ball.     They  are  far  more 


PILGRIMAGES.  199 

the  "  joly  compagnie"  of  "fayerie  "  Chaucer 
tells  us  of  than  the  joyless  "lymytours  "  that 
displaced  it. 

The  Japanese  go  upon  pilgrimages  because 
they  thoroughly  enjoy  themselves  in  the  pro- 
cess, the  piety  incident  to  the  act  sim.ply  re- 
lieving them  from  compunction  at  having  so 
good  a  time.  Sociability  is  the  keynote  of 
the  affair  from  start  to  finish.  To  pool  one's 
pleasure  is  always  to  increase  it,  and  for  a 
Japanese  to  pool  his  purse  is  matter  of  as 
much  account.  For  a  Japanese  is  not  only 
poor,  but  impecunious.  His  personal  prop- 
erty of  impersonality  is  only  matched  by  the 
impersonality  of  his  personal  property.  For 
what  a  Japanese  appears  to  possess  is,  ten 
to  one,  borrowed  of  a  friend,  and  v\diat  he 
really  owns  pledged  to  a  neighbor.  He  is, 
in  short,  but  a  transition  stage  in  one  long 
shift  of  loan.  We  talk  of  our  far-reaching 
system  of  mercantile  credits.  It  is  financial 
self-sufficiency  beside  the  every-day  state  of 
far-eastern  affairs.  Everybody  there  lives 
as  a  matter  of  course  upon  somebody  else. 
To  these  states  of  mind  and  money  are  due 
the  founding  of  the  pilgrim  clubs. 

The  pilgrim  clubs  {kosha  or  ko)  are  great 


200  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

institutions  in  numbers  as  well  as  in  other 
things.  Indeed  they  are  numerous  beyond 
belief.  Collectively  they  are  said  to  com- 
prise eighty  per  cent,  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  the  empire,  a  statement  I  accept  only 
at  a  popular  discount.  Their  individual 
membership  consists  on  the  average  of  from 
one  hundred  to  five  hundred  persons  apiece. 
Some  clubs  are  smaller  than  this,  and  of 
some  the  membership  mounts  into  the  thou- 
sands. The  Tomeye  kd,  the  largest  I  know 
of,  has  about  twelve  thousand  men  enrolled 
in  it.  That  these  are  drawn  chiefly  from 
the  small  tradesman  and  artisan  class  speaks 
for  the  hold  the  habit  has  on  the  people. 

Ladies  are  quite  eligible  for  election  and 
even  for  office  in  these  clubs.  The  wife  of 
a  tobacconist  with  whom  I  am  acquainted  is 
actually  the  head  of  a  sub-sect,  which  com- 
prises several  clubs ;  and  the  husband  is 
an  enthusiastic  club-man  in  one  of  them. 

The  constitution  of  the  clubs  is  delight- 
fully simple.  The  club  charter  is  obtained 
from  the  head  of  the  sect  by  some  energetic 
individual  of  the  society-founding  propensity, 
who  collects  about  him  a  few  friends  and 
incidentally  appoints  himself  to  the  club  pres- 


PIL  GRIM  A  GES.  20 1 

idency,  becoming  what  is  called  its  sendaisji. 
When  not  thus  self-appointed,  the  president 
is  elected  by  the  brethren  for  his  piety, 
which  is  another  name  for  the  same  thing. 

Besides  their  simplicity,  one  great  charm 
about  these  clubs  is  their  cheapness.  What- 
ever may  be  argued  by  domestically  inclined 
individuals  against  clubs  generally  on  the 
score  of  expense,  these  at  least  would  hardly 
seem  open  to  the  charge.  For  the  initiation 
fee  is  from  three  to  five  cents  (five  to  ten 
sen),  and  the  dues  from  two  thirds  of  a  cent 
to  a  cent  and  a  third  (one  to  two  sen)  a 
month,  according  to  the  club.  And  yet  the 
president  of  one  of  them  once  told  me  that 
the  principal  item  in  his  club's  running  ex- 
penses was  the  cost  of  dunning  the  members 
for  their  dues.  So  lamentably  lax  in  paying 
its  debts  is  humanity  the  world  over.  But 
indeed  it  was  a  serious  matter,  for  it 
amounted,  it  appeared,  to  a  fifth  of  the  gross 
receipts.  His  club  consisted  of  five  hundred 
members  each  of  whom  was  supposed  to  pay 
eight  cents  a  year  into  the  club  treasury ; 
which  sum  it  took  eight  dollars  to  collect. 

When  his  club  obligations  have  finally 
been   discharged,    the    member   receives    a 


202  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

ticket  {kansatsii)  with  the  name  of  the  club 
and  of  the  sub-sect  to  which  it  belongs  in- 
scribed on  its  face,  and  the  name  of  the 
member  and  half  the  stamp  of  the  club  seal 
on  its  back.  The  other  half  remains  in  the 
registry  books,  of  which  the  ticket  is  a  slip. 
The  ticket  constitutes  a  certificate  of  mem- 
bership to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  inn- 
keepers principally. 

Forgetfulness  to  discharge  one's  club  dues 
is  the  less  excusable  in  the  face  of  their  being 
of  the  nature  of  gambling  debts.  For  after 
the  cost  of  collection  and  the  other  running 
expenses  have  been  deducted,  the  remainder 
is  raffled  for  by  the  members,  and  pocketed 
by  the  lucky  winners  through  the  club 
treasurer,  for  pilgrimage  purposes. 

Once  a  year,  about  three  weeks  before  the 
pilgrim  band  is  to  start,  the  lots  are  drawn, 
and  in  the  drawing  everybody  who  has  paid 
up  participates  except  the  winners  of  pre- 
vious pools.  They  are  barred,  to  give  the 
unlucky  a  chance,  till  each  shall  have  had  his 
journey  apiece.  Thus  are  the  inequalities  of 
fate  corrected  and  all  eventually  made  happy 
at  the  club  expense. 

The  dues  being  so  modest,  the  percentage 


PIL  GRIM  A  GES.  20$ 

of  prizes  is  necessarily  small  ;  only  about 
three  members  in  a  hundred  being  annually 
recipients  of  the  club  fund.  Paucity  of 
prizes  doubtless  conduces  to  remissness  in 
paying  up  ;  and  even  rotation  in  eligibility, 
just  though  it  be,  does  not  add  to  the  desire 
of  past  beneficiaries  to  make  present,  per- 
sonally unprofitable,  disbursement. 

The  fortunate  winners  are  held  to  be  espe- 
cially invited  of  the  gods  to  visit  them.  The 
club  fund  is  turned  over  to  the  club  treasurer 
for  their  benefit,  and  the  others  heartily 
envy  them  their  lot. 

The  envy  is  chiefly  pecuniary.  For  though 
the  god  is  supposed  through  the  lots  to  show 
a  pleasing  preference  for  the  winner's  com- 
pany, he  is  not  considered  averse  to  self- 
invited  visitors.  Any  one  who  wishes  to  join 
himself  to  the  pilgrim  company  may  do  so 
at  his  own  expense;  and  very  many  avail 
themselves  of  the  privilege. 

On  the  day  appointed  for  the  start,  the 
god-chosen  and  the  self-invited  rendezvous 
at  what  stands  to  the  club  for  club-house, 
and  thence  sally  forth  under  the  guidance  of 
their  revered  president.  This  individual,  be- 
ing presumably  the  holiest  man  in  the  club, 


204  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

if  not  the  actual  author  of  its  being,  is 
clothed  from  the  start  with  a  certain  fatherly 
prestige.  His  importance  is  heightened  by 
the  fact  of  his  having  made  the  pilgrimage 
several  times  before.  Indeed,  he  goes  usually 
every  year,  and  paternally  expounds  the  won- 
ders of  the  way  to  the  brethren,  who  listen 
agape  and  retail  it  all  in  their  turn  to  a  no 
less  spellbound  audience  at  home.  For,  like 
the  month  of  March,  though  in  another  way, 
they  come  in  like  lions  who  went  out  like 
lambs. 

The  worthy  man  is  not  only  the  head  but 
the  only  dead-head  of  the  party.  He  alone 
pays  no  scot.  There  are  thus  more  sub- 
stantial benefits  accruing  to  the  post  of  club 
president  than  simply  a  cicerone's  gratified 
sense  of  importance.  That  he  does  not  have 
to  pay  reminds  one  of  directors'  cars  at 
home.  However,  so  holy  a  person  is  other- 
wise superior  to  money  considerations ;  the 
purse  being  carried  by  the  tori-sJiimari-nin 
or  treasurer. 

The  treasurer  is  the  club's  man-of-affairs, 
of  very  small  affairs  indeed.  The  Japanese 
are  not  above  a  monetary  system  which 
descends  in  decimals  to  the  thousandth  part 


PILGRIMAGES.  205 

of  a  cent,  and,  what  is  more  surprising,  they 
keep  accounts  to  the  like  infinitesimal  fig- 
ures. Small  wonder  that  neither  arithmetic 
nor  trade  have  charms  for  them.  To  such 
microscopic  quantities  the  club  treasurer  is 
no  stranger.  Nothing  is  too  minute  to  fig- 
ure in  his  cash-book,  from  a  fresh  pair  of 
straw  sandals  at  a  cent  and  a  half  a  pair  to  a 
pickle  or  two  at  next  to  nothing.  To  the 
bill  for  which,  lilliputian  in  all  but  length, 
the  innkeeper  with  due  solemnity  affixes  his 
seal. 

In  spite  of  the  infinitesimal  values  of  the 
separate  items  of  the  expense,  the  sum  total 
■  invariably  causes  the  club  fund  to  fall  short, 
the  deficit  having  to  be  made  up  out  of  the 
individual  pockets  of  the  pilgrims.  Unlike 
the  club  dues,  this  does  not  seem  to  be 
begrudged,  the  fact  being  that  a  pilgrimage 
is  altogether  too  delectable  a  thing  not  to 
render  those  who  indulge  in  it  blind  to  its 
cost. 

In  addition  to  the  president  and  treasurer, 
there  are  other  officials  known  as  sewanhi 
or  help-men,  ofBcers  whose  principal  duty 
would  seem  to  be  helping  the  president  dun 
members  for  their  dues. 


206  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

The  pilgrim  clubs  find  no  counterpart  in 
China.  They  are  therefore  not  an  imported 
institution,  but  a  custom  indigenous  to  Japan. 

II. 

Japanese  pilgrimages  are  of  two  kinds,  the 
distinction  being  matter  of  topography.  For 
though  some  pilgrimages  are  Buddhist,  some 
Shinto,  a  much  more  fundamental  point 
about  them  is  the  character  of  the  country 
concerned  —  whether  they  are  made  to  the 
lowland  shrines  or  to  the  sacred  summits. 

In  importance,  the  Shinto  pilgrimages 
come  first,  measuring  importance  by  patron- 
age. Half  a  million  folk,  it  is  estimated, 
make  the  journey  to  the  shrines  at  Ise  every 
spring,  and  ten  thousand  climb  Fuji  every 
summer.  Of  the  ten  modern  Shinto  sects, 
all  but  two  are  addicted  to  going  upon  pil- 
grimages, and  each  has  its  special  great 
goal,  as  well  as  innumerable  minor  ones. 
These  goals  are  the  spots  dedicate  to  their 
special  gods.  Of  the  two  sects  without  goals, 
one  is  a  sort  of  government  bureau,  and  is 
consequently  sedentary.  The  other  would 
seem  to  be  in  the  act  of  evolving  the  pil- 
grimage habit,  for  it  has  pilgrim  clubs  which. 


PILGRIMAGES.  20/ 

however,  go  no  whither.  Of  the  other  eight, 
three  are  devoted  to  Ontake,  two  to  Ise,  two 
to  Fuji,  and  one  to  Izumo.  Sects  do  not 
mix  goals,  but  it  is  quite  permissible  for  in- 
dividuals to  mix  sects.  So  that  persons  of 
advanced  pilgrimage  proclivities  can  indulge 
them  to  any  extent  without  too  tiresome 
repetition. 

Pilgrimages  to  the  lowland  shrines  and  to 
the  sacred  peaks  differ  in  several  important 
respects ;  in  sex,  to  begin  with.  For  femi- 
ninity has  always  flocked  to  the  one,  and, 
until  western  ideas  broke  down  all  the  pro- 
prieties, was  debarred  the  other.  This  was 
no  matter  of  physique,  but  of  piety.  Woman 
was  altogether  too  godless  a  creature  to  tread 
such  holy  ground  as  the  peaks;  an  odd  as- 
sumption, to  our  thinking,  since  woman  with 
us,  when  not  superficially  godlike,  is  pretty 
sure  to  be  godly.  But  the  other  side  of  the 
world  thinks  otherwise.  It  was  considered 
favor  enough  to  permit  her  to  climb  three 
quarters  way  up,  where  she  was  obliged  to 
stop ;  which  must  have  been  considerably 
more  aggravating  than  not  to  have  been 
allowed  to  climb  at  all. 

Proof,  however,  that  this  was  an  invidious 


208  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

distinction,  and  that  woman  is  by  nature  no 
less  devout  in  Japan  than  elsewhere,  is  the 
way  in  which  she  tramps  to  the  lowland 
shrines,  and  has  a  radiant  time  of  it  the 
whole  distance.  To  see  her  trudging  stur- 
dily along,  beaming  at  the  least  provocation, 
the  very  impersonation  of  vacant  good-hu- 
mor, does  one  good  like  a  gleam  of  sunshine. 
Sometimes  she  dutifully  follows  in  the  wake 
of  her  lord  and  master  ;  sometimes  she  shuf- 
fles along  in  the  exclusive  society  of  her  own 
sex,  chattering  continuously  upon  nothing 
at  all.  But  she  is  always  perfectly  happy 
and  apparently  never  tired.  She  knows  no 
nerves. 

To  the  great  Shrines  of  Ise  it  is  the  fashion 
for  pilgrim  clubs  to  go  composed  entirely  of 
pilgrimesses,  maidens  of  Kyoto  and  Osaka, 
who  make  the  journey  in  bands  of  from  fifty 
to  a  hundred,  taking  with  them  only  one 
man,  or  two,  to  do  the  heavy  work  ;  veritable 
bouquets  of  pretty  girls. 

Stranger  still,  to  our  notions  of  propriety, 
little  girls  of  eleven  or  twelve  will  surrep- 
titiously club  together  and  slip  off  some  fine 
morning  all  by  themselves  on  a  tramp  to  the 
shrine.     There  is  at  first  some  slight  alarm 


PIL  GRIM  A  GES.  209 

when  the  disappearance  is  discovered.  But 
the  very  inquiry  that  raises  anxiety  soon 
lulls  it  by  revealing  similar  bereavements 
among  the  parents'  particular  friends.  Then 
the  financial  accomplices  to  the  deed,  kind- 
hearted  neighbors,  wheedled  by  the  children 
into  loaning  them  the  necessary  funds,  come 
forward  and  own  up,  now  that  the  borrowers 
are  beyond  recall.  But,  indeed,  so  soon  as 
the  cause  of  the  flight  is  known,  there  would 
seem  to  be  no  thought  of  fetching  back 
the  fugitives.  On  the  contrary,  their  act 
is  deemed  eminently  praiseworthy,  which 
strikes  one  as  perhaps  illogical.  But  religion 
covers  a  multitude  of  sins. 

The  parental  heart  is  not  set  quite  at  rest, 
however,  till  other  pilgrims  returning  from 
the  shrine  bring  word  of  the  waifs  ;  one  has 
met  the  little  girls  disembarking  at  Yokkai- 
chi,  another  saw  them  at  the  Ise  inn.  All 
report  the  truants  quite  well  and  happy,  as  if 
children  at  mischief  were  ever  otherwise. 
Then,  with  palpitations  of  pride,  the  parents 
make  great  preparations  against  their  return. 
Elaborate  these  are,  for  honor  enough,  appar- 
ently, cannot  be  done  the  young  scapegraces. 
Long  before  they  can  possibly  arrive,  their 


2IO  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

relatives  go  out  to  meet  them  many  miles 
down  the  road,  and  then  wait  sometimes 
several  days  at  a  convenient  village  till  the 
band  heaves  in  sight.  The  girls  are  re- 
ceived with  praise  instead  of  blame,  and 
amid  great  rejoicings  escorted  into  town  ;  a 
reception  which  conduces  to  recurrence  of 
the  escapade. 

Each  lowland  shrine  has  its  special  festi- 
val season,  although  it  may  also  be  visited 
advantageously  at  other  times.  Pilgrimage 
to  the  shrines  at  Ise  is  made  at  the  time  the 
cherries  blow.  Then  the  great  highways 
that  lead  thither  are  as  gay  with  pilgrim  folk 
beneath  as  their  flower  aisles  are  bright  with 
blossom  overhead.  The  progress  of  each 
band  is  one  long  triumphal  march.  As  it 
nears  an  inn  where  it  purposes  to  spend  the 
night,  runners  are  dispatched  ahead  to  notify 
the  place  of  its  coming,  which  instantly  be- 
comes all  bustle  to  receive  it.  Hastily  don- 
ning their  best  clothes,  the  maids  and  other 
servants  scamper  out  to  meet  the  band  and 
escort  it  in  with  festival  pomp.  A  feast  fol- 
lows in  the  evening  quite  as  spirituous  as 
spiritual,  pointed  with  pious  song  right  secu- 
larly sung.     At  the  end  of  it  there  is  some- 


( 


,..-^^'  \  9  P  A^ 


PIL  GRIM  A  GES.  2 1 1 


thing  very  like  a  break-down  by  the  whole 
company,  maids  and  all.  The  pilgrims  rising, 
make  a  ring  about  the  maids  in  the  middle 
and  then  walk  round  and  round  chanting 
the  Ise  hymn,  while  the  maids  join  lustily 
in  the  chorus.  In  this  unpuritanical  fashion 
is  each  evening  brought  to  a  close. 

Upon  their  departure  the  next  morning 
the  pilgrims  present  everybody  with  sou- 
venirs of  themselves  :  the  inn  with  the  club 
banner  and  the  maids  with  their  club  visit- 
ing-cards. Especially  is  the  president  to  the 
fore  with  this  charming  attention.  Both 
kinds  of  keepsakes  are  carried  in  large  quan- 
tities by  the  band,  and  distributed  unstint- 
edly. For  not  to  scatter  such  mementos  of 
themselves  along  their  route  would  be,  in 
pilgrim  estimation,  to  travel  in  vain.  The 
landlord  beams  on  the  threshold,  and  the 
maids,  all  smiles,  attend  the  band  some  dis- 
tance out,  and  then  throw  good  wishes  after 
it  till  it  disappears  down  the  road. 

But  the  supreme  moment  is  when  the 
company  reenters  in  triumph  its  native 
town.  Careful  account  has  been  kept  of 
its  whereabouts,  and  just  before  it  is  due 
horses  strangely  and  gorgeously  caparisoned 


212  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

are  sent  out  to  meet  it.  On  either  side  the 
horses'  necks  are  stuck  long  bamboo  fronds, 
from  which  hang  scarfs  of  gayly  colored 
crape.  Each  horse  carries  a  rich  riding 
saddle,  to  which  are  fastened  two  paniers, 
one  on  either  hand  ;  each  steed  thus  seating 
three  persons  apiece,  one  astride  in  the 
middle,  and  two  asquat  in  the  baskets  on  the 
sides.  With  the  steeds  are  sent  personal 
adornments  for  the  pilgrims  ;  hats  made  of 
flowers  {hanagasa)  and  gayly  embroidered 
coats,  beside  cakes  and  coppers  for  scatter- 
ing to  the  crowd.  Thus  accoutred,  rollick- 
ing along  and  strewing  the  largess  as  they 
pass,  the  pious  pilgrims  make  their  entry 
home.  That  evening  a  banquet  is  given  them 
by  their  relatives  and  friends,,  regardless  of 
expense,  like  to  some  coming  of  age  in  the 
gay  middle  ages.  Sake  and  merriment  flow 
without  stint,  and  not  till  the  next  day  do 
the  pilgrims  sink  back  again  into  private 
life  ;  holier  folk,  however,  ever  after. 


PILGRIMAGES.  213 


III. 


More  serious  matters  are  the  pilgrimages 
to  the  peaks.  The  seriousness  shows  itself 
on  the  surface  in  the  matter  of  dress.  For 
according  to  the  character  of  the  pilgrimage 
is  the  character  of  the  costume  worn  by 
the  pilgrim.  To  the  shrines  in  the  plain, 
the  thing  to  wear  is  the  height  of  holiday 
attire ;  for  the  peaks,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
consecrated  dress  is  as  plain  as  possible. 

Theoretically,  the  costume  of  the  ascen- 
sionists  is  pure  white  or  pearl-gray,  accord- 
ing to  their  sect  or  pilgrim  club  ;  practically 
it  is  a  grimy  dirt-color  in  both  cases.  For 
it  is  never  washed,  the  travel  stains  being 
part  of  its  acquired  sanctity.  Its  hue,  self- 
effacing  to  begin  with,  is  thus  further  ren- 
dered by  nature  self-obliterating.  It  be- 
comes, therefore,  doubly  expressive  of  a 
proper  blankness  within. 

It  begins  with  a  huge  mushroom  hat  made 
of  wood-shavings  cleverly  plaited,  held  on  by 
a  complication  of  straps.  Natural  deal-color 
is  deemed  in  this  connection  as  holy  as  pure 
white,  since  both  are  attempts  at  colorless- 
ness.     Under  this  hat,  umbrella,  or  parasol. 


214  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

for  it  is  most  serviceably  all  of  them  as  occa- 
sion requires,  the  pilgrim  wears  a  handker- 
chief in  fillet  round  his  brow.  A  long  white 
tunic  comes  next,  which  theoretically  is  the 
pilgrim's  only  garment,  except  of  course  the 
ubiquitous  loin-cloth.  Practically  he  usually 
has  on  something  beneath  it,  first  in  the  shape 
of  a  shirt  and  then  of  tight-fitting  trouser- 
drawers.  The  tunic  is  thoroughly  stamped 
with  ideographs ;  some  of  them  being  the 
names  of  the  gods  of  the  mountain,  some 
those  of  the  pilgrim  club.  Girdling  this  is 
a  long  belt-sash,  round  which  often  runs  a 
row  of  transmogrified  Sanskrit  letters,  quite 
illegible  to  the  wearer  or  to  any  one  else, 
so  caricatured  have  they  been  by  successive 
ignorant  transmission.  Their  illegibility,  of 
course  enhances  their  religious  effect  ;  just 
as  the  word  "  amen "  sounds  incomparably 
holier  than  "so  be  it."  White  gaiters,  white 
cloven  socks,  and  straw  sandals  complete  the 
more  intimate  part  of  the  costume.  The  gai- 
ters are  sometimes  lavender  for  the  ladies. 

But  the  most  peculiar  portion  of  the  dress 
is  the  wing-like  mat  {goza)  which  the  pilgrim 
wears  over  his  shoulders  by  a  strap  across 
the  breast.     As  it  extends  beyond  his  arms 


PIL  GRIM  A  GES.  2 1  5 

on  either  side  and  flaps  in  the  wind  as  he 
walks,  it  gives  him  an  ostrich-like  effect  at 
a  distance,  and  what  I  conceive  to  be  a 
seraphic  one  nearer  to.  At  all  events,  it  is 
the  nearest  mundane  attempt  at  angelic  rep- 
resentation. What  is  even  more  saintly,  it  is 
quite  without  vainglorious  intent,  being  sim- 
ply a  combination  waterproof-coat  and  linen- 
duster.  It  is  also,  very  conveniently,  both  a 
carpet  and  a  bed. 

Quite  as  inseparable  a  part  of  the  pilgrim 
is  his  staff.  This  is  sometimes  round,  some- 
times octagonal,  and  is  branded  with  the 
name  of  the  peak,  and  stamped  in  red  with 
the  sign  of  the  shrine  at  the  place  where  the 
ascent  is  supposed  to  begin.  The  imprint 
further  takes  pains  to  state  whether  the  pil- 
grim came  in  by  the  front  door  or  by  the 
back  one,  mountains  usually  having  both 
entrances,  the  original  path  being  considered 
the  front  approach.  The  staves  are  counter- 
stamped  again  at  the  summit ;  the  holy  seals 
effectually  silencing  all  skepticism  on  the 
pilgrim's  return,  and  permitting  his  imagina- 
tion freer  play  in  the  domestic  circle. 

Somewhere  about  his  person  each  man 
carries  a  kerosene-looking  tin  can  in  which 


2l6  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

to  take  home  the  holy  water,  a  specialty  of 
sacred  peaks.  With  sublime  superiority  to 
detail  it  cures  all  ills,  irrespective  of  their 
character. 

In  his  right  hand  the  leader  of  the  party 
holds  a  bell  which  he  rings  as  he  walks ; 
others  often  do  the  same.  The  tinkle  of  this 
bell,  together  with  the  chanting  in  which  all 
join,  imparts  a  fine  processional  effect  to  the 
march,  very  impressive  to  less  pious  way- 
farers. 

Up  their  sleeves  or  tucked  into  their  gir- 
dles the  pilgrims  carry  ^^/^^/-wands,  rosaries, 
and  other  tools  of  their  trade  ;  together  with 
the  indispensable  pilgrim  banners,  badges, 
and  the  club's  visiting  cards.  Of  earthly 
baggage  they  have  none.  The  reason  for 
this  has  a  moral.  It  is  done  to  ingratiate 
the  gods,  because  of  the  greater  peril  of  pil- 
grimages to  the  peaks.  The  gods  are  sup- 
posed to  have  a  fancy  for  such  ascetic  attire, 
and  to  protect  themselves  against  the  dan- 
gers of  the  ascent  the  pilgrims  take  particu- 
lar pains  to  propitiate  the  gods  ;  a  reason 
kin  to  that  the  little  girl  gave  for  omitting 
her  prayers  in  the  morning,  though  she  said 
them  scrupulously  at  night ;  that  she  needed 


I, 


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X 

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III 
a 

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H 


PIL  GRIM  A  GES.  2 1  / 

God  to  protect  her  while  she  was  asleep,  but 
that  she  could  look  after  herself  in  the  day- 
time. 

If  the  costume  seem  somewhat  destitute- 
of  comfort,  the  mountain  itself  is  not.  The 
traditional  ascetics  are  described,  indeed,  as 
having  made  the  ascent  on  single-toothed 
clogs,  which  certainly  sounds  difficult,  and 
was  thought  a  particularly  meritorious  thing 
to  do.  Its  merit  lay  in  thus  avoiding  crush- 
ing stray  beetles,  it  is  said.  But  the  moun- 
tain knows  such  rigorous  single-mindedness 
no  more.  Nowadays  the  ascent  is  specially 
convenienced  for  the  comfort  of  the  pious 
climbers.  Every  sacred  peak  is  well  rib- 
boned with  paths  which  are  all  thought- 
fully beaded  with  rest-houses  ,  at  intervals 
suited  to  the  weakness  of  the  flesh.  A  care- 
taker inhabits  each  of  these  hostelries  and 
dispenses  tea,  cakes,  water,  and  other  fare  to 
the  exhausted,  besides  providing  futon  and 
such-like  necessaries  for  spending  the  night. 
In  the  season  the  huts  are  crowded  with 
pilgrims.  Nominally  there  are  always  ten 
of  them  on  every  path  from  base  to  summit ; 
one  at  the  end  of  each  section  into  which 
the  path  is  fictitiously  divided.    The  parts  go 


2l8  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

by  the  rather  surprising  name  of  "  gills " 
{go)  \  the  first  "gill"  being  just  within  the 
mountain's  portal,  and  the  tenth  welcoming 
the  pilgrim  at  the  top.  Amid  much  that  is 
passing  strange  in  the  Japanese  method  of 
mountaineering,  this  startlingly  liquid  meas- 
ure for  a  painfully  waterless  slope  is  perhaps 
the  strangest ;  for  it  is  not  the  rest-houses 
that  are  so  designated,  but  the  path  itself 
with  what,  considering  its  distressingly  dry 
condition,  must  be  thought  very  ill-placed 
humor.  In  explanation  it  is  said  that  moun- 
tains are  likened  to  heaps  of  spilled  rice, 
the  measure  being  one  for  both  rice  and 
liquids,  and  reckoned  at  a  sJio,  or  three  pints, 
quite  irrespective  of  size.  The  length  of  the 
path,  by  an  easy  extension,  is  called  a  quart 
and  a  half,  and  then  divided  into  tenths,  each 
of  which  becomes  a  gill. 

Shrines  beside  the  path  are  almost  as  nu- 
merous as  rest-houses.  Temples  also  are 
not  wanting.  There  are  several  at  the  bot- 
tom, one  at  the  top,  and  often  others  be- 
tween, for  though  there  be  few  on  the  flanks 
themselves,  the  foot  of  a  mountain  is  of  in- 
definite length.  Untenanted  by  priests,  they 
all  stand  open  to  the  public,  and  the  cords  of 


PIL  GRIM  A  GES.  2 1 9 

their  bells  hang  in  mute  invitation  to  the  pil- 
grim to  call  upon  the  god. 

But  most  peculiar  and  picturesque  of  the 
features  of  the  way  are  the  torii  or  skeleton- 
archways  that  straddle  the  path,  Japanese 
colossi  of  roads.  There  are  many  of  them 
for  every  shrine,  the  outermost  placed  at  a 
seemingly  quite  disconnected  distance  away 
from  what  it  heralds.  The  several  passes 
known  as  Torii  toge,  scattered  all  over 
Japan,  are  all  so  called  from  such  portals 
erected  on  their  summits  to  sacred  peaks 
visible  from  them  in  clear  weather.  One  of 
the  most  important  is  the  Torii  toge  on  the 
Nakasendo,  through  whose  arch  the  pilgrim, 
as  he  tops  the  pass,  catches  his  first  view  of 
Ontake,  a  long  snow-streaked  summit,  seen 
over  intervening  ranges  of  hills,  thirty-five 
miles  away,  as  the  crane  flies,  or  would  fly, 
were  he  not  practically  extinct  in  Japan. 
This  is  the  outer  portal  of  all  ;  after  this  the 
pilgrim  finds  gateway  after  gateway  across 
his  path,  till  the  last  ushers  him  on  to  the 
holy  summit  itself.  Distrust  of  his  own  pur- 
ity prevents  the  pious  from  actually  passing 
under  them  on  the  ascent,  and  he  modestly 
goes  round  them  instead.  On  the  descent, 
holiness  conquers  humility. 


220  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Shrines,  rest-houses,  and  portals  make 
breathing  spots  for  the  pilgrims,  which  the 
church  instantly  turns  to  business  account, 
for  the  church  is  not  above  trade.  In  its 
hands,  faith  very  properly  becomes  a  market- 
able commodity.  In  return  for  ready  money 
it  barters  its  salvation  in  the  shape  of 
charms.  These  are  usually  small  pieces  of 
paper  stamped  with  the  names  of  the  gods, 
and  sometimes  lithographed  with  rude  por- 
traits of  the  same,  manufactured  by  the  mil- 
lion and  sold  for  a  cent.  With  such  popular 
prices,  sales  are  enormous,  and  booths  under 
the  charge  of  holy  salesmen  do  a  continuous 
business  from  morning  to  night,  for  no  pil- 
grim passes  on  his  way  without  buying  his 
charm.  Some  of  these  {niamori)  guard  one 
against  special  catastrophe,  disease,  or  mis- 
fortune ;  some  bring  particular  good  luck, 
such  as  a  prolific  propagation  of  one's  silk- 
worms ;  others  are  cure-alls  and  universal 
protectors.  Charms  are  religion's  epigrams  ; 
packet  essences  of  truth,  potent  for  being 
portably  put.  When  the  pilgrims  get  home, 
they  pin  them  upon  the  lintel  of  their  outer 
doors,  and  few  doors  in  any  Tokyo  street 
but  are  placarded  with  them. 


PIL  GKIMA  GES.  221 

The  pilgrims  are  much  given  to  chanting 
ais  they  march.  They  do  it  as  naturally  as 
some  people  whistle.  The  Ise  bands  go  roll- 
ing along  to  the  enlivening  cadence  of  the 
Ise  ondd,  and  to  many  more  special  odes  set 
to  what  with  good  will  passes  for  music.  It 
is  rhythm  on  the  road  to  song,  a  caterpillar 
stage  in  the  art  of  melody,  lacking  as  yet 
transformation  to  the  winged  thing. 

The  chants  consecrated  to  the  peaks  are 
more  truly  processionals.  Common  to  all 
of  them  is  the  stirring  refrain  Rokkoii  shojo ; 
Oyania  kaisei,  chanted  antiphonally  in  two 
tones,  the  second  about  a  fifth  higher  than 
the  first.  Literally,  the  meaning  of  the  re- 
frain is :  May  our  six  parts  be  pure,  and 
may  the  weather  on  the  honorable  peak  be 
fine.  But  the  words  are  mystic  to  most  of 
those  who  repeat  them.  The  first  half  is  a 
portion  of  one  of  the  purification  prayers, 
the  rokkon  shojo  no  harai,  the  second  a  part 
of  a  prayer  for  fine  weather.  It  is,  so  I  am 
informed,  simply  invaluable  in  dispelling 
mist. 

Unlike  the  gods  of  the  lowland  shrines, 
which  have  each  their  special  reception 
days,  the  gods  of  the  peaks  are  all  of  them 


2  22  OCCULT  JAPAN: 

at  home  to  mankind  at  the  same  season  — 
midsummer.  This  is  very  considerate  on 
their  part,  since  to  visit  them  at  any  other 
time  would  be  troublesome.  In  consequence, 
in  Japanese  eyes,  an  ascent  out  of  season  is 
not  only  impious,  but  actually  impossible. 
Every  year,  about  the  20th  of  July,  takes 
place  what  is  known  as  the  mountain-open- 
ing. At  that  time,  all  over  Japan,  the  moun- 
tain-paths are  repaired,  the  huts  unbarred 
and  put  in  order,  and  the  peaks  climbed  with 
great  pomp  for  the  first  ascent  of  the  season. 
The  peaks  then  remain  open  till  about  the 
5th  of  September,  when  they  are  again  de- 
serted till  the  next  July. 

In  this  manner  the  "Goddess  who  makes 
the  Flower  Buds  to  blossom  "  receives  her 
worshipers  upon  Fuji's  crater-crest,  to  which 
a  temple  just  without,  known  as  the  Goddess' 
Welcome,  ushers  them  up.  Other  gods  and 
goddesses  are  similarly  visited  upon  their 
special  peaks.  But  on  all  but  one  the  eye 
of  faith  alone  perceives  them  ;  only  on  one 
are  they  incarnate  in  the  flesh. 


PILGRIMAGES.  223 

IV. 

For  there  is  one  mountain  that  makes 
bourne  to  a  farther  journey  than  any  possi- 
ble to  the  feet.  Ontak6  is  goal  to  the  soul's 
pilgrimage  into  the  other  world.  For  Ontake 
is  the  mountain  of  trance.  To  its  summit 
pilgrims  ascend,  not  simply  to  adore  but 
to  be  there  actually  incarnate  of  the  gods. 
Through  the  six  weeks  in  which  the  gods 
deign  to  receive  man,  divine  possessions 
daily  take  place  upon  it.  Furthermore,  it  is 
the  only  peak  in  Japan  where,  of  the  spot's 
own  instance,  such  communion  is  thought  to 
occur.  It  is  what  the  Japanese  call  the  great 
original  {hon  vioto)  of  trance  ;  other  peaks, 
such  as  Omanago  near  Nikko,  getting  their 
power  by  direct  spiritual  descent  from  it. 

In  keeping  with  the  character  of  the  peak, 
is  the  character  of  the  pilgrim  clubs  that 
climb  it.  The  Ontak6  clubs  differ  from  all 
their  fellows  in  being  divine-possession  clubs. 
To  become  entranced  is  the  club  occupation. 
Instead  of  simple  prayer-meetings  in  their 
dead  season,  these  clubs  hold  regular  seances 
for  the  purpose  of  being  possessed,  seances 
which  they  turn  to  very  practical  ends.     For 


224  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

they  direct  all  the  important  affairs  of  their 
lives  by  such  revelation.  Once  a  month 
they  hold  communion  of  the  sort,  and  every 
midsummer  as  many  of  them  as  may  travel 
to  Ontake  for  a  yet  higher  spiritual  flight. 
The  thin,  pure  air  of  the  peaks  is  conducive 
to  ethereality,  and  Ontake  is  furthermore  in- 
vested with  faith's  most  potent  spell.  If  to 
have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  can  re- 
move mountains,  it  is  not  easy  to  set  bounds 
to  what  a  mountain  of  it  might  not  be  able 
to  do. 

Each  club  is  a  divine  dramatic  company 
in  itself,  containing  all  the  performers  neces- 
sary to  a  possession.  Only  in  very  small 
clubs  is  such  organization  lacking.  But  as 
in  this  case  their  president  is  often  president 
of  some  larger  club,  the  loan  of  a  nakaza  is 
easily  managed.  For  the  president  borrows 
of  himself  in  the  one  capacity  what  he  needs 
in  the  other. 

Very  large  clubs  contain  several  such  com- 
panies. There  may  be  as  many  as  fifteen 
nakaza  in  a  club,  and  twice  that  number  of 
maeza.  There  is  no  rule  in  the  matter.  But 
except  for  exceptional  cases  of  esprit  de  corps, 
many  maeza,  or  nakaza,  in  one  club  do  not 


■a 
< 

z 

o 

u 
z 


3 


PILGRIMAGES.  225 

apparently  make  a  happy  family  of  it,  find- 
ing divided  prestige  disagreeable.  So,  like 
queen  bees,  they  swarm  with  their  follow- 
ing and  found  a  new  club.  Such  fission  is 
one  mode  of  club  generation.  Another  is  by 
the  spontaneous  generation  from  the  fertile 
brain  of  some  energetic  individual  spoken  of 
above. 

Once  started,  each  club  is  a  spiritual  law 
unto  itself — a  possession  Salpetriere  per- 
petuating its  own  pecuhar  practices.  For  it 
educates  its  own  nakaza  under  the  tuition  of 
its  maeza  and  the  previous  nakaza.  The 
tuition  is  one  long  process  in  purification. 
A  man  begins  as  a  simple  member,  gradu- 
ally rises  to  a  lower  part  in  the  function,  and, 
if  proficient,  may  eventually  rise  to  be  a  god- 
possessed.  The  outward  ceremonies  are  of 
course  consciously  copied,  the  inward  initia- 
tive quite  unconsciously  conformed  to. 

When  one  subject  has  thus  educated  his 
successor  he  retires  from  active  practice,  be- 
coming what  is  called  an  inkyo-nakaza.  An 
inkyo,  lit.  a  dweller  in  retirement,  is  a  sin- 
gular Japanese  conception.  It  denotes  a 
man  who  has  abdicated  all  earthly  cares, 
duties,   and  responsibilities  in  favor  of   his 


226  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

son  ;  a  man  professedly  gone  from  the  world 
while  still  patently  in  it.  This  is  a  state  of 
existence  immaterial  enough,  but  to  be  a 
retired  potential  god  would  seem  a  doubly 
etherealized  idea.  Nevertheless  the  thing 
exists,  and  in  case  of  sickness  or  other  in- 
capacity on  the  part  of  the  nakaza,  the  man 
who  represents  this  abdicated  embodiment 
of  immateriality  performs  in  the  other's 
place. 

The  chief  difference  between  the  various 
schools  of  divinity  consists  in  the  opening 
or  non-opening  of  the  eyes  of  the  possessed 
during  the  height  of  the  trance.  But  all  the 
other  actions  of  the  possessed  during  the 
trance  are  likewise  stereotyped.  His  whole 
behavior  in  it  is  no  more  nor  less  than  a 
bundle  of  hypnotic  habits.  The  mechanical 
raising  of  the  gohei-\^zxidi  to  his  forehead, 
the  peculiar  frenzied  shake  he  gives  it,  the 
settling  of  it  again  to  a  statesque  imperative 
before  his  brow,  are  all  but  so  many  cases  of 
unintentional  artificiality.  This  is  particu- 
larly discernible  in  the  difference  between 
the  simpler  attitudes  of  the  Ryobu  trances 
and  the  more  elaborate  poses  of  the  pure 
Shinto  ones.  The  Buddhist  feminine  fash- 
ions, again,  are  different  from  either. 


PILGRIMAGES.  22/ 

To  be  a  club  nakaza  is  pretty  hard  work. 
He  must  be  possessed  at  least  two  or  three 
times  a  month,  and  may  be  called  upon  to 
be  somebody  beside  himself  much  oftener. 
It  depends  upon  how  much  divination  work 
there  is  to  be  done.  This  work  is  of  two 
kinds.  There  is  first  the  regular  routine 
business  of  the  club  in  the  way  of  prophecy  : 
the  foretelling  of  drought,  storms,  earth- 
quakes, and  other  general  catastrophes  af- 
fecting the  interest  of  the  club.  Some 
clubs  have  to  interview  the  gods  once  a 
month  on  such  matters ;  others  manage  to 
get  along  on  two  questionings  a  year,  at  the 
two  great  semi-annual  festivals.  This  is 
probably  due  to  club-temperament,  just  as 
it  suffices  some  people  to  ask  a  question 
once  for  all,  while  others  have  to  be  per- 
petually putting  it  under  indistinguishably 
different  forms.  In  addition  to  this  routine 
work  there  are  the  inevitable  extras :  the 
unavoidable  illnesses,  to  be  cured  by  divine 
prescription,  and  incidentally  any  other  mis- 
fortunes to  which  flesh  is  heir,  all  of  which 
the  god  is  expected  to  relieve  on  application. 
Between  these  various  duties  the  god,  and 
incidentally  the  poor  nakaza,  is  kept  pretty 


228  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

busy.  To  be  so  frequently  divine  has  its 
drawbacks.  Except  for  his  succh  d'estime, 
a  nakaza  must  wish  at  times  that  he  were 
merely  mortal.  Even  in  all  the  club  diseases, 
to  be  both  doctor  and  patient,  which  is  what 
it  amounts  to,  is  no  slight  strain  on  the  poor 
man's  constitution. 

The  god's  conversation,  though  not  super- 
ficially brilliant,  is  tolerably  to  the  point,  and 
certainly  suggests  intuition  at  times,  though 
I  know  no  cases  of  a  very  startling  nature. 
The  best  instance  I  witnessed  was  the  divin- 
ing by  the  god  of  the  pain  in  the  leg  of  a 
friend  of  mine,  to  which,  since  the  man  was 
unknown  to  him  and  betrayed  the  fact  by  no 
outward  sign,  there  was  no  visible  clue. 

The  prophecies  are  not  striking,  though 
quite  satisfactory  to  the  club.  They  are 
religiously  recorded  on  slips  of  paper  and 
filed  in  the  club  archives.  So  that  one  may 
find  there  what  the  club's  history  was,  or 
should  have  been,  month  by  month  in  the 
past.  The  prophecies  are  laconic  and  indefi- 
nite enough  to  figure  in  the  predictions  of 
the  "New  England  Farmer's  Almanac;"  a 
lack  of  precision  which  does  not  detract 
from  their  chance  of  verification. 


PILGRIMAGES.  229 

Other-world  work  is  apparently  quite  com- 
patible with  hard  work  in  this.  One  of  my 
special  friends,  the  nakaza  of  the  August 
Dance  Pilgrim  Club  is  a  case  in  point.  His 
club  communes  once  a  month  and  his  duties 
begin  as  soon  as  ever  the  monthly  business 
accounts  are  settled.  He  then  comes  in  for 
a  series  of  possession  engagements.  Indeed, 
if  you  apply  for  a  sitting  you  will  find  his 
time  taken  up  ahead  in  a  way  to  suggest 
more  earthly  callings.  In  addition  to  all  of 
which  he  works  like  anybody  else  at  his  reg- 
ular trade,  and  is  a  strong,  hearty  young  fel- 
low in  spite  of  his  being  a  god  so  goodly  a 
fraction  of  his  time. 

Thus,  humble  though  their  active  mem- 
bers be,  the  Ontake  pilgrim  clubs  furnish 
society  not  to  be  found  in  any  other  clubs 
on  earth  :  the  company  of  heaven  is  to  be 
had  for  the  asking.  For  the  Ontake  pilgrim 
clubs  are  the  only  clubs  in  the  world  whose 
honorary  members  are,  not  naval  officers, 
not  distinguished  foreigners,  not  princely 
figureheads,  but  gods. 


THE   GOHEI. 


N  the  beginning  of  this  account  of 
Japanese  divine  possession  I  stated 
that  it  was  of  Shinto  origin,  and  I 
promised  later  to  justify  the  assertion.  The 
time  has  come  to  fulfill  that  promise.  Hav- 
ing seen  that  esoteric  Shinto  is  esoteric,  it 
becomes  pertinent  now  to  show  that  it  is 
Shinto. 

To  prove  this  initially  was  anything  but 
the  forthright  matter  it  may  seem.  For  the 
establishing  of  the  genuineness  of  the  act 
of  possession  was  child's  play  beside  estab- 
lishing the  genuineness  of  the  possession  of 
the  act.  At  first  glance  the  latter  was  as 
prettily  mixed  up  an  intellectual  lawsuit  as 
one  could  buy  into.  Nobody  really  knew 
anything  about  the  case,  and  those  who  con- 
fidently ventured  a  verdict  did  so  in  suspi- 
cious accordance  with  their  special  interest ; 


THE   GOHEI.  231 

while  as  for  general  principles,  so  far  as  they 
proved  anything,  they  turned  out  to  prove 
what  was  not  true. 

Two  claimants  presented  themselves  for 
possession  of  the  cult,  Shinto  and  Buddhism. 
That  the  cult  was  chiefly  practiced  by  neither, 
but  by  a  third  party  well  known  to  be  illegit- 
imate, called,  with  a  certain  pious  duplicity 
of  meaning,  Both,  —  such  being  the  literal 
rendering  of  the  term  Ry5bu,  —  did  not  sim- 
plify matters.  For  the  hybrid  Ryobu,  having 
.  candidly  confessed  its  illegitimacy,  dumbly 
refused  to  confess  further  on  the  subject. 

The  importance  of  the  inquiry  quite  tran- 
scends the  question  of  creed.  Did  it  not  do 
so,  we  might  safely  leave  it  to  the  zeal  of 
church  polemics.  But  it  is  not  simply  a 
question  of  religion  ;  it  is  a  question  of  race. 
For  if  the  thing  be  Shinto,  it  is  purely  Jap- 
anese ;  if  Buddhist,  it  is  but  another  bit  of 
foreign  importation.  In  the  one  case  it  pos- 
sesses the  importance  that  attaches  to  being 
of  the  soil,  in  the  other  merely  such  super- 
ficial interest  as  attaches  to  soiling,  —  mat- 
ter of  much  less  archseologic  account.  The 
point  thus  possesses  ethnic  consequence. 

Direct   inquiry  elicited  worse   than   igno- 


232  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

ranee ;  it  evolved  a  peculiarly  mystifying 
doubt.  For  the  priestly  evidence  was  bit- 
terly baffling.  No  sooner  had  one  man  con- 
vincingly told  his  tale  than  another  came 
along  with  an  upsettingly  opposite  story. 
The  sole  point  in  which  the  tellers  substan- 
tially agreed  lay  in  ascribing  it  pretty  unan- 
imously each  to  his  own  particular  faith. 
The  Shintoists  asserted  that  it  was  Shinto ; 
the  Buddhists  that  it  was  Buddhist ;  while 
the  Ryobuists  ascribed  it  at  times  to  the  one, 
but  more  commonly  to  the  other.  A  few 
humble  brethren  modestly  admitted  that  they 
did  not  know. 

The  only  fact  that  emerged  tolerably  self- 
evident  from  this  bundle  of  contradiction 
was  that  somebody  had  stolen  the  cult  from 
somebody  else,  but  as  to  which  of  these  rep- 
utable parties  was  the  reprehensible  robber, 
and  which  his  unfortunate  victim,  the  poor 
investigator  was  left  sadly  at  a  loss  to  dis- 
cover. 

Where  doctors  of  divinity  disagreed  in  this 
alarming  manner,  it  seemed  hopeless  to  try 
to  decide  between  them.  Under  such  weighty 
counter-assertions  one's  own  opinion  swung 
balance-wise  to  settle  at  last  to  the  lowest 


THE   GOHEI.  233 

level  of  equi-doLibt.  And  there,  so  far  as 
mere  human  help  could  go,  it  might  have 
stayed  forever  in  indeterminate  suspension. 

At  this  critical  dead-point  in  the  investiga- 
tion, when  any  advance  toward  conviction 
seemed  an  impossibility,  a  bit  of  circumstan- 
tial evidence  suddenly  presented  itself  to  turn 
the  scale.  I  say  presented  itself,  for  it  was 
not  through  the  deposition  of  either  contend- 
ing party  that  it  came  into  court.  It  wan- 
dered in  one  day  unexpectedly,  and  proceeded 
quietly  to  give  most  damaging  testimony  in 
the  case.  Indeed  its  evidence  was  crucial. 
Oddly  enough,  this  circumstantial  witness 
appeared  in  the  shape  of  what  stands  to 
Shinto  for  crucifix  —  the  gohei. 

The  acquaintance  of  the  gohei  is  among 
the  first  that  one  makes  in  Japan.  The 
startling  zigzags  of  that  strange  strip  of 
white  paper,  pendent  at  intervals  from  a 
straw  rope  lining  the  lintel  of  some  temple- 
front,  instantly  catch  the  eye  with  the  real- 
istic suggestion  of  lightning.  Indeed,  so  far 
as  looks  go,  the  thing  might  very  well  be  a 
flash  of  that  hasty  but  undecided  visitant  of 
the  skies,  caught  unawares  by  some  chance, 
and    miraculously    paper-fied.     For   striking 


234  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

enough  it  still  is.  And  that  its  discontinuities 
of  direction  can  all  be  fashioned  out  of  one 
continuous  sheet  remains  one  of  those  hope- 
less mysteries  of  construction  kin  to  the 
introduction  of  the  apple  into  the  dumpling, 
till  one  has  actually  seen  the  sheet  cut  and 
folded  into  shape  before  his  eyes. 

Specimens  enough,  however,  he  is  sure  to 
see,  first  without  and  then  within  the  tem- 
ple building.  As  it  drapes  the  entrance, 
so  it  hangs  in  holy  frieze  around  the  holiest 
rooms,  appearing  at  every  possible  oppor- 
tunity, till,  finally,  at  the  very  heart  of  the 
shrine,  it  stands  upright  upon  a  wand,  the 
central  object  of  regard  upon  the  altar. 

But  it  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the 
temples,  the  iniya  and  the  jinja,  plentifully 
as  these  are  dotted  over  the  land.  Almost 
every  house  has  its  kami-dana  or  Shinto- 
god's  shelf,  a  tiny  household  shrine,  the  glo- 
rification of  some  cupboard  or  recess.  And 
there  in  the  half-light  stands  the  gohei  again, 
there  in  the  heart  of  each  Japanese  home. 

It  is  no  more  confined  to  an  indoor  life 
than  man  himself.  You  shall  meet  it  abroad 
all  over  the  land,  in  the  most  unexpected 
nooks  and  corners.     The  paths  that  lead  so 


THE   GOMEL  235 

prettily  over  Japanese  hill  and  valley  are  set 
with  wayside  oratories  and  before  many  of 
them  stands  2i  gohei  on  its  stick,  sometimes 
quite  humanly  housed  under  a  tiny  shed, 
sometimes  canopied  only  by  the  sky  and  the 
stars.  Thoroughfare,  field,  and  forest  know 
it  alike.  Now  it  marks  a  quiet  eddy  in  the 
tide  of  traffic  of  a  bustling  town,  and  now, 
the  long  year  through,  it  points  the  bleak 
summit  of  some  lonely  peak  that  only  in 
midsummer  knows  the  foot  of  man. 

Welcoming  anchorite  to  the  mountaineer, 
it  is  no  less  the  farmer's  friend.  In  fact  it  is 
peculiarly  addicted  to  agriculture.  When 
the  growing  rice  begins  to  dream  of  the  ear, 
it  makes  its  appearance  in  the  paddy-lields, 
stationed  here  and  there  among  the  crops, 
keeping  an  overseer  eye  upon  them  from  the 

top  of  a  tall  stick. 

But  strangest  post  of  all,  you  shall  chance 
upon  it  some  fine  day  riding  in  festival  pro- 
cession, perched  in  solitary  grandeur  upon 
the  saddle  of  a  richly  caparisoned  horse. 

In  short,  it  is  omnipresent,  this  Shinto 
symbol. 

Its  religious  significance  it  would  be  hard 
to  overestimate.     It  is  to  Shinto  what  the 


236  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

crucifix  is  to  Christianity  and  a  great  deal 
more  ;  one  of  those  symbols  which  modern 
defenders  of  the  faith  take  much  pains  to 
assure  you  is  only  a  symbol,  and  no  pains 
whatever  to  prevent  the  people  from  wor- 
shiping as  a  god.  As  Shintoists  are  not  so 
much  distressed  to  harmonize  their  beliefs 
with  science,  being  as  yet  unfired  by  the 
burning  desire  to  know  the  reasons  of 
things,  they  make  small  distinction  between 
the  gohei  and  the  god.  In  many  cases  they 
make  none  at  all. 

For  there  are  two  kinds  of  gohei  ;  the  one, 
the  harai-bei  or  purification  present,  and  the 
other,  the  shintai  or  god's  body.  The  first 
has  for  analogue  in  Christianity  the  crucifix. 
It  is  the  universal  Shinto  symbol  of  conse- 
cration. Wherever  you  meet  it  you  may 
know  the  spot  at  once  for  holy  ground  dedi- 
cate to  the  god  ;  and  specimens  of  it  may  be 
seen  in  profusion  about  any  Shinto  temple. 
They  are  the  gohei  that  first  greet  the  devo- 
tee, pendent  from  the  sacred  straw  rope 
upon  the  lintel  of  the  temple  door ;  and 
they  are  the  gohei  that  festoon  the  building's 
eaves  and  make  frieze  to  the  holier  rooms 
within.    It  is  they  also  that  in  the  possession 


THE   GO  HE  I.  237 

act  inclose  the  place  of  the  god's  descent 
and  sanctify  it  to  his  brief  habiting.  In 
short,  wherever  a  gohei  is  hung  up  you  may 
know  it  for  one  of  the  purification  kind. 

To  the  second  or  the  god's  body  variety 
belong  all  such  as  are  stood  upright  upon  a 
wand.  The  gohei  that  makes  cynosure  upon 
the  temple  altar  is  of  this  kind  and  so  is  the 
one  so  daintily  domesticated  in  the  family 
cupboard  at  home.  So  also  are  those  met 
with  in  the  mart,  on  the  mountain-top,  and 
amid  the  paddy-fields.  Last  but  most  im- 
portant of  all  these  vicarious  emblems  of 
deity  is  that  which  is  clenched  in  the  hands 
of  the  possessed  during  the  possession  trance. 

They  are  called  the  god's  body,  not  be- 
cause they  are  permanently  god,  but  because 
they  may  become  his  embodiment  at  any 
moment.  The  little  that  we  know  of  the 
evolution  of  the  gohei  will  help  explain  what 
is  supposed  to  take  place.  Its  name  signifies 
cloth,  gohei  meaning  august  cloth  or  present; 
the  former  meaning  having  in  course  of  time 
developed  through  a  whole  gamut  of  gifts  in 
the  concrete  into  the  latter  meaning  in  the 
abstract.  For  the  gohei  is  the  direct  de- 
scendant of  the  hempen  cloth  hung  on  the 


238  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

sacred  sakaki  (the  CUycra  Japoiiicd)  in  pres- 
ent to  the  gods.  A  relative  of  this  its  an- 
cestor may  still  be  seen  in  Korea  in  the 
shreds  of  colored  cloth  attached  there  to 
the  devil  trees  ;  a  shift  of  devotion  which 
need  distress  no  one,  since  devils  and  gods 
are  always  first  cousins  in  any  faith. 

From  hemp  its  material  constitution 
changed  successively  first  to  cotton,  then  to 
silk,  and  finally  to  its  present  modest  paper, 
a  transformation  of  substance  quite  in  step 
economically  with  the  progress  of  the  arts. 
As  to  its  color,  the  earliest  mention  of  it  — 
in  the  Kojiki,  recorded  therefore  as  early  as 
anything  in  Japan  —  tells  of  two  kinds,  one 
dark  blue,  the  other  white,  used  together. 
Nowadays  it  is  almost  always  the  plain 
white  of  ordinary  paper.  But  occasionally 
gohei  of  the  far-oriental  elemental  colors, 
yellow,  red,  black,  white,  and  blue,  may  be 
seen  in  a  row,  a  cosmic  quinquenity  of  the 
five  elements,  wood,  fire,  earth,  water,  and 
metal. 

Cloth  it  was,  clothes  it  has  become.  For 
in  form  it  now  symbolizes  the  vesture  of  the 
god.  Falling  in  spotless  folds  that  spread 
out  on  either  side  about  the  wand,  it  suggests, 


THE   GONE  I.  239 

even  to  the  undevout,  the  starched  flounces 
of  some  ceremonial  dress.  In  the  Ryobu 
variety  the  central  connecting  link  is  raised 
upright  in  the  midst,  clothes-pinned  upon 
the  stick  ;  owing  to  its  cut,  it  flanges  out  a 
little  toward  the  top,  which  does  for  the  di- 
vine neck  and  head.  In  the  purer  Shint5 
form  the  top  piece  is  bent  down  over  the 
rest,  symbolic  of  a  more  perfect  pose. 

On  occasion  the  god  deigns  to  inhabit  this 
habit  of  his.  Such  embodiment,  indeed,  is 
graciously  taking  place  every  day  at  any 
Shinto  temple.  To  say  that  it  takes  place 
at  the  god's  pleasure,  however,  is  to  put  it 
flatteringly  to  the  god  ;  for  it  really  happens 
at  the  will  of  the  worshiper.  Every  prayer, 
even  the  merest  momentary  mumble,  in- 
volves incarnation  of  the  gohei  by  the  god, 
and  at  a  moment's  call.  For  before  he  be- 
gins his  prayer  the  worshiper  claps  his 
hands.  This  is  a  summons  to  the  god  to 
descend  ;  a  like  signal  bids  him  depart.  At 
any  popular  shrine  there  is  thus  a  continual 
coming  and  going  on  the  part  of  the  god  ; 
which  seems  understandable  enough  until 
one  attempts  to  understand  it.  For  what 
happens  when  two  persons  call  at  overlap- 


240  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

ping  times  upon  one  and  the  same  god,  so 
that  one  worshiper  bids  him  be  gone  while 
the  other  would  still  have  him  stay,  is  not 
strictly  clear.  But  such  complications  con- 
front the  too  curious  in  all  theories  of  an- 
thropomorphic gods,  especially  when  their 
worshipers  are  on  intimate  terms  with  them. 
I  merely  suggest  it  here  as  a  problem  in 
higher  esoterics. 

Cases  of  incarnation  where  the  god  may 
be  supposed  more  nearly  to  suit  his  own 
convenience  are  those  of  the  goJici  of  the 
paddy-fields.  These  are  divine  scarecrows, 
or  rather  scare-locusts,  those  pests  of  the 
paddy-field  farmer.  They  are  scarecrows, 
however,  in  an  occult  sense,  for  in  spite  of 
resembling  gods  as  monstrously  as  the  more 
secular  monstrosities  do  man,  it  is  not  their 
looks  which  the  locusts  do  not  like,  but  their 
disposition.  And,  to  judge  from  their  general 
employment,  they  appear  to  do  as  effective 
police  duty  in  frightening  off  insects  as  those 
about  the  temple  do  in  frightening  off  imps. 

Another  instance  of  the  goJiei  incarnated 
of  the  god  is  where  it  is  borne  in  festival 
procession  sitting  upon  the  sacred  horse. 
This  animal,  usually  an  albino,  is  the  god's 


J 


THE   GO  HE  I.  241 

Steed  of  state,  kept  for  the  divine  use  in  the 
sacred  stable,  an  adjunct  to  all  well-appointed 
shrines.  For  in  these  festivals  it  is  no  stick 
that  rides  ;  the  god  himself  sits  in  the  sad- 
dle. It  is  the  god's  chosen  way  of  appearing 
in  public.  In  no  other  way,  indeed,  does  the 
god  ever  leave  the  temple.  The  prurient 
may  possibly  detect  some  inconsistency  be- 
tween this  statement  and  the  one  made 
above  to  the  effect  that  the  god  is  always 
coming  and  going ;  but  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  in  no  cosmogony  is  consistency 
expected  of  spirits.  Besides,  to  go  out  in 
state  and  to  go  out  incognito  are  two  very 
different  things,  even  in  the  case  of  royalty. 

All  these  are  examples  of  quite  invisible 
possessions.  Though  the  god  be  there,  the 
undevout  would  never  know  it.  But  there 
are  sensible  possessions  of  the  gohei;  cases 
where  the  incarnation  of  the  god  may  be 
both  seen  and  felt.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  the  first  sign  of  the  coming  on  of  the 
possession  in  the  possession  trance  is  the 
shaking  of  the  ^^//^z'-wand.  So  spontaneous 
does  this  shaking  seem,  that  it  is  no  wonder 
it  should  be  thought  so  in  fact.  The  gohei 
shakes,  believers   say,   because  the  god  de- 


242  OCCULT  JAPAN-. 

scends  into  it,  and  it  quivers  yet  as  passing 
through  it  he  slips  on  into  the  body  of  the 
man.  Without  its  mediation  possession 
would  not  take  place.  The  gohei  is  thus  a 
sort  of  spirit  lightning-rod  to  conduct  the 
divine  spirit  into  the  human  one.  It  is  not, 
therefore,  without  a  certain  poetic  fitness 
that  it  should  look  so  like  lightning. 

Another  case  of  its  visible  possessions, 
one  where  it  plays  a  more  autonomous  part, 
is  its  christening  power.  A  very  curious 
custom  this,  and  so  far  as  I  know  one  quite 
unknown  to  foreigners;  so  much  so  that 
more  than  one  of  my  acquaintance  who  has 
had  children  by  a  Japanese  wife  have  stoutly 
maintained  that  no  such  custom  exists.  It 
is  a  fact,  nevertheless. 

There  are  three  methods  of  naming  chil- 
dren in  vogue  among  Shintdists.  One,  the 
most  obvious  and  the  least  devout,  is  for  the 
father  to  name  the  child  himself.  The  next 
in  an  ascending  scale  of  piety  is  for  the 
father  to  select  several  suitable  names  and 
then  submit  the  choice  among  them  to  the 
god.  The  way  the  god  shows  his  choice  is 
as  follows  :  The  father  brings  the  child  to 
the  temple,  and  with  him  slips  of  paper   in- 


THE   GOHEL  243 

scribed  with  possible  names.  Tliree  or  five 
is  the  usual  number.  The  priest  rolls  them 
up  separately,  puts  them  into  a  bowl,  and 
after  due  incarnation  angles  for  them  with 
a  gohei  upon  a  wand.  Whichever  the  gohei 
fishes  out  first  is  the  god-given  name  the 
child  is  to  bear  ;  a  convenient  custom  when 
a  father  is  in  doubt  between  the  far-eastern 
equivalents  of  Tom,  Dick,  or  Harry.  This 
ceremony  takes  place  when  the  infant  is  a 
week  old.  It  is  not  to  be  confounded  with 
the  miya  mairi,  which  takes  place  a  month 
after  birth  and  is  not  our  christening  at  all, 
but  akin  to  the  Hebraic  presentation  of  the 
child  at  the  temple.  For  at  the  niiya  jnairi 
the  child,  named  some  weeks  before,  is  pre- 
sented to  its  guardian  god  and  formally  put 
under  his  protection.  This  style  of  chris- 
tening is  also  largely  performed  by  the  pil- 
grim clubs. 

The  third  method  of  getting  the  babe  a 
name  is  by  possession  pure  and  simple. 
The  nakaza  goes  into  his  trance,  the  god 
descending  through  the  gohei,  and  the  maeza 
asks  the  god  what  he  will  have  the  baby 
called,  to  which  the  god  makes  reply.  This 
method  of  christening  one's  child  is  reputed 


or  T«s 
HNIVERSITT 


244  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

the  most  holy  of  the  three,  and  is  duly  prac- 
ticed by  the  ultra  devout.  Of  the  population 
of  Japan,  about  twenty  per  cent.,  it  is  esti- 
mated, are  named  thus  by  the  gohei  or  the 
god,  —  about  ten  per  cent,  by  each. 

From  such  many  and  various  capacities 
inherent  in  the  gohei  may  be  gathered  the 
part  it  plays  in  the  thoughts  of  the  Japanese 
people.  Indeed,  it  is  all  that  is  most  Shint5, 
and  reversely  Shinto  is  mostly  all  gohei. 

It  is,  therefore,  not  surprising  that  in  the 
wholesale  Buddhist  spoliation  of  Shintd  the 
gohei  should  have  been  one  of  the  few  pos- 
sessions which  Shintd  was  able  to  retain. 
Not  that  some  of  the  Buddhist  sects  did 
not  flatteringly  adopt  it.  The  Shingon  and 
Nichiren  sects  have  both  been  pleased  to 
find  it  useful,  and  have  adapted  it  to  suit 
themselves,  transforming  it,  for  example, 
from  unpretentious  paper  into  solid  brass. 
Nevertheless,  its  ownership  is  quite  unques- 
tioned. It  is  not  only  of  Shint5  creation,  but 
admittedly  so. 


THE   GOHEI.  245 


II. 


Now  it  was  this  ^c'//(!?/-wand  that  in  conjur- 
ing up  the  god  conjured  up  unexpectedly 
one  day  the  spirit  of  the  rite.  Its  exorcism 
was  sorely  needed,  for  in  spite  of  boring  the 
priests  and  even  bothering  the  god  on  the 
subject,  nothing  but  perplexity  had  come  of 
the  investigation,  when  one  day  it  suddenly 
occurred  to  me  that  the  gohei  was  always 
present  at  a  possession ;  that  in  every  in- 
stance this  wand  had  been  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  man  to  be  possessed  prepara- 
tory to  the  possession,  and  that  he  had  then 
held  it  through  the  trance.  Other  details 
had  varied,  but  the  wand  was  always  there. 
I  could  recollect  no  exception  to  this  rule. 
Having  once  been  struck  by  the  coincidence, 
I  observed  more  closely,  and  to  complete 
confirmation  of  my  conjecture.  At  every 
function,  whether  at  the  hands  of  Ryobuists, 
Shintaists,  or  Buddhists,  there  was  the  wand, 
constant  as  the  trance  itself. 

Upon  which  I  asked  and  got  innocent  ad- 
mission from  the  Buddhists  that  it  was  a 
necessar}^  detail  of  the  rite,  while  from  Shinto 
I   learned   the  explanation  of  its  presence. 


246  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

The  fact  and  its  reason  may  be  formulated  to- 
gether thus  :  The  gohei-wand  is  used  in  every 
diviiie  possession  in  yapan,  without  exception, 
as  a  necessary  vehicle  for  the  god's  descent. 
Whether  the  possession  take  place  by  Shint5, 
Ryobu,  or  Buddhist  rite,  in  every  instance 
the  gohei-^dXidi  is  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
man  to  be  possessed  at  the  time  the  invi- 
tation to  the  god  to  descend  begins,  and 
"through  it  is  the  god  believed  to  come.  It 
'\s  post  hoc  because  propter  hoc.  The  gohei  is 
thus  the  very  soul  of  the  rite. 

To  add  argument  to  this  fact  savors  of 
supererogation,  for  the  crucial  character  of 
its  circumstantial  evidence  is  patent.  As  if, 
however,  gratuitously  to  emphasize  its  impor- 
tance, both  faiths  festoon  the  place  where 
the  descent  is  to  be  made  with  other  gohei, 
pendent  overhead,  for  purification.  Both 
haraibei  and  sJiintai  are  thus  present  at  the 
function. 

Before  the  waving  of  this  little  wand,  all 
the  Buddhist  pretensions  to  the  cult  pale  to 
impalpable  phantoms.  Further  discussion 
becomes  suddenly  vain.  One  cannot  argue, 
with  a  wraith;  and  if  one  think  to  strike 
insubstantiality,  he  is  aware  only  of  the  void. 


THE   GOHEL  24/ 

But  as  some  good  souls  will  still  persist  in 
believing  in  spooks,  in  spite  of  the  failure 
of  the  not  over-incredulous  Society  for  Psy- 
chical Research  to  find  a  single  really  trust- 
worthy specimen,  it  may  be  well  to  lay  this 
ghost  by  a  funeral  logical  rite  or  two. 

To  begin  with,  then,  it  is  important  to 
remember  that  to  behevers  the  means  to  a 
mystery  is  the  mystery  itself.  For  those 
addicted  to  such  things  do  not  follow  them 
as  sciences,  but  as  arts.  They  have  inher- 
ited the  act  embodied  in  certain  actions,  and 
the  symbols  in  which  it  stands  enshrined 
are  to  them  essentials  to  its  performance. 
From  being  so  in  act,  they  become  so  in 
fact.  For  so  potent  is  faith,  that  to  believe 
in  a  means  as  essential  to  an  end  is,  by 
virtue  of  that  belief  alone^,  to  make  it  so. 

Now  a  mystery  is  not  a  thing  a  faith  is  in 
the  habit  of  naively  imparting  to  the  first 
man  it  may  chance  to  buttonhole  for  pious 
purposes,  especially  when  it  is  a  mystery  of 
the  utmost  significance  to  itself.  Every 
well-organized  hierarchy  has  to  keep  up 
a  certain  amount  of  celestial  exclusiveness 
for  purposes  of  self-preservation.  Just  be- 
cause by  prolonged  devotion  it  has  secured 


248  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

3.  distant  divine  recognition  is  no  reason 
why  it  should  minimize  this  intimacy  to  oth- 
ers. Anteroom  admission  to  the  favor  of 
the  gods  is  surely  as  valuable  a  privilege  as 
a  like  reception  at  the  hands  of  the  great 
ones  of  the  earth  ;  and  we  all  know  what 
lustre  in  their  own  eyes  such  threshold  inti- 
macy casts  upon  the  favored  few,  even  to  the 
extent  of  pretending  to  make  light  of  it  to 
others.  Now  this  divine  intimacy  is  impos- 
ing enough  in  all  conscience  when  it  rests 
simply  on  the  word  of  the  admitted.  How 
infinitely  more  so  when  confirmed  by  visible 
action  on  the  part  of  the  gods  themselves. 
An  introduction  to  such  peculiar  privilege  is 
not  thoughtlessly  to  be  given  to  everybody. 
It  will  not  do  to  present  profane  outsiders  to 
one's  gods ;  still  less  thus  to  present  one's 
bosom  foe.  Such  an  act  is  nothing  short  of 
sacerdotal  suicide. 

Yet  something  still  more  improbable  the 
Buddhists  would  have  us  believe.  For  they 
admit  getting  the  £^o/iei  from  Shinto,  and  at 
the  same  time  they  assert  that  they  taught 
that  faith  the  possession  cult.  If  so,  then 
they  took  three  steps  to  their  own  destruc- 
tion, each  more  trance-like,  to  say  the  least, 


THE   GOHEL  249 

than  its  predecessor.  First,  they  parted  for 
no  consideration  whatever  with  a  most  valu- 
able possession  —  simply  inestimably  so  for 
purposes  of  conversion  —  to  the  very  folk 
whom  they  were  at  the  moment  doing  their 
utmost  to  convert.  Next,  they  permitted 
these  people,  once  taught,  to  substitute  their 
own  sacred  symbol  as  conjurer  in  the  su- 
preme act,  a  concession  which  must  speedily 
have  induced  complete  oblivion  that  the  cult 
itself  had  ever  been  a  gift ;  and  then,  to  cap 
the  climax  to  their  kind  self-effacement,  they 
actually  adopted  this,  their  proselytes'  sym- 
bol, for  exclusive  use  themselves.  And  then 
they  ask  the  world  to  credit  the  account. 
One  does  not  know  whether  to  be  the  more 
astounded  at  the  colossal  coolness  which  can 
put  forth  such  a  tale,  or  at  the  amazing  sim- 
plicity which  can  suppose  others  capable  of 
believing  it. 

Were  I  merely  making  an  argument  in  the 
matter  I  should  here  rest  my  case,  the  con- 
vincing character  of  this  bit  of  evidence 
alone  rendering  any  other  superfluous.  But 
as  it  is  an  exposition  on  which  I  am  engaged, 
I  go  on  to  some  more  facts,  all  in  the  same 
line. 


250  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

To  a  pro-Buddhist  prejudice  in  the  matter, 
the  first  of  these  must  prove  a  revelation 
second  only  in  surprise  to  the  last.  It  is 
this  :  the  very  gods  the  gohei-sN2SvdL  summons 
turn  in  its  hands  state's  evidence  against  it. 
For  it  is  the  Shinto  gods  that  descend.  Not 
only  is  it  its  own  gods  alone  that  Shint5 
summons,  but  the  Buddhists  also  call  Shinto 
deities,  and  of  their  own  pantheon  only  the 
lower,  never  the  higher,  members.  To  ex- 
plain this  unusual  fancy  for  their  neighbors' 
gods,  combined  with  a  relative  disregard  for 
the  company  of  their  own,  the  Buddhists 
allege  the,  to  them,  comparative  unimpor- 
tance of  the  cult.  Such  indifferentism  is 
perilously  near  abandonment  of  their  pre- 
vious claims.  People  are  not  given  to  de- 
tecting flatness  of  flavor  in  their  own  fruit. 
If  the  practice  be  to  them  so  unimportant 
an  affair,  why  indulge  in  it  at  all }  Besides, 
even  this  lame  admission  halts  at  summoning 
the  Shint5  gods.  Doubtless  it  is  most  flat- 
tering to  the  Shinto  deities  thus  to  be  called 
on  for  their  opinion  by  professing  outsiders, 
but  it  would  seem  quite  an  inexplicable  cre- 
dulity on  the  part  of  the  Buddhists  to  do  so, 
even  among  the  politest  people  in  the  world. 


THE   GOHEI.  251 


III. 


So  much  shall  suffice  here  for  the  mute 
evidence  of  acts.  But  language  has  a  word 
or  two  to  say  on  the  subject  which,  as  a 
matter  of  courtesy,  it  may  be  well  to  admit. 
And  first  in  the  way  of  records. 

The  Kojiki  and  the  Nihonshoki,  known 
also  as  the  Nihongi,  are  the  oldest  written 
records  of  the  Japanese  people.  Compiled, 
the  one  in  a.  d.  712,  the  other  in  a.  d.  720, 
they  together  constitute  the  Shinto  bible, 
being  different  gospels,  as  it  were,  of  much 
the  same  facts  and  fictions  about  the  national 
past.  Many  of  the  fictions  are  doubtless 
founded  on  fact,  though  exactly  how  and  even 
inexactly  when,  it  would  outwit  mythology 
itself  to  state.  There  is  at  the  beginning 
the  usual  attempt  to  make  something  out 
of  nothing  in  order  to  account  for  the  cos- 
mos, much  of  which  is  probably  Chinese. 
Then  having  got  primeval  chaos  into  some- 
thing approaching  order,  the  account  gradu- 
ally assumes  consistency,  till  at  last  it  be- 
comes substantially  history,  of  a  far-oriental 
kind.  As  it  begins  with  gods  and  ends  with 
men,  the  evolution  is  not  of  the  strictly  sci- 


252  OCCULT  japan: 

entific  kind,  but  rather  a  general  devolution 
in  keeping  with  the  doctrine  of  original  sin. 
During  this  abnormal  development  various 
improbable  events  occur,  some  necessary  to 
it,  some  irrelevant.  Of  course  the  gods  are 
the  dei  ex  inachina  in  the  matter ;  and  it 
takes  a  long  time  before  the  universe  gets 
into  fairly  passable  running  order,  and  their 
presence  can  generally  be  dispensed  with. 
This  dispensation,  indeed,  never  wholly  takes 
place,  and  even  after  the  world  is  going 
along  well  enough  of  itself,  and  the  gods 
have  formally  left  the  field  to  their  descend- 
ants, they  are  continually  popping  in  and 
out,  just  to  be  sure  no  mistakes  are  made. 
One  of  their  favorite  methods  of  appearing 
on  the  scene  is  to  possess  people.  Such 
manifestations  of  themselves  were  not,  if  we 
are  to  trust  the  histories,  very  uncommon. 
There  are  at  least  three  recorded  instances, 
and,  what  is  peculiarly  to  the  point,  these 
are  described  with  almost  the  exact  detail 
which  distinguishes  the  possessions  of  to- 
day ;  which  makes  the  accounts  peculiarly 
interesting  ethnologically.  We  seem  to  be 
looking  down  that  long  vista  of  the  past  to 
trances  similar  to  any  taking  place  about  us 
at  the  present  time. 


THE    GOMEL  253 

The  first  incarnation  of  which  mention  is 
made  took  place  in  the  purely  heavenly  half 
of  the  history,  at  the  time  when  the  gods 
alone  lived  in  the  land.  The  occasion  was 
the  unfortunate  withdrawal  of  the  Sun-God- 
dess into  a  cave  in  consequence  of  the  un- 
seemly conduct  of  her  brother,  Susunao,  or 
the  Impetuous  Male.  This  rude  individual 
is  the  first  recorded  instance  of  the  enfant 
terrible,  and  is  not  unhappily  named,  I  think, 
to  express  the  fact.  He  was  subsequently 
banished  to  the  moon  for  his  improprieties. 
The  displeasure  of  the  Sun  -  Goddess  was 
peculiarly  distressing  to  the  company  of 
heaven,  because  her  withdrawal  of  itself 
plunged  them  into  utter  darkness.  They 
accordingly  set  about  concocting  a  scheme 
to  lure  her  out,  the  execution  of  which,  as 
given  in  the  Kojiki,  reads  as  follows  :  — 

"  They  hung  all  manner  of  things  upon 
the  tree :  five  hundred  jewel-strings  of  bril- 
liant bent  beads  to  the  top  branches,  an 
eight-sided  looking-glass  to  the  middle  ones, 
and  dark  blue  and  white  goJiei  to  the  lowest. 
Then  his  Augustness  Jewel  August  Thing 
took  an  z.M'gM'&t  gohei  in  his  hand,  and  Heav- 
enly Small  Roof  August  Thing  made  repeti- 


2  54  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

tion  of  some  august  {i.  e.  Shinto)  prayers,  while 
Heavenly  Hand  Power  Male  God  was  sent 
to  hide  beside  the  august  door.  Thereupon 
Heavenly  Ugly  Face  August  Thing,  using  a 
heavenly  vine  from  the  Heavenly  Incense 
Mountain  as  shoulder-cord  to  tuck  up  her 
sleeves,  and  making  herself  a  wig  of  the 
heavenly  masa-tree,  and  tying  up  a  bunch  of 
bamboo-grass  from  the  Heavenly  Incense 
Mountain  to  hold  in  her  hand,  turned  a  cask 
bottom  up  before  the  door  of  the  heavenly 
rock-house,  and  treading  and  stamping  upon 
it  with  her  feet  became  possessed  {kaimi-ga- 
kari  shite).  And  clutching  the  clothes  from 
about  her  breast,  and  pushing  down  the 
girdle  of  her  skirt,  she  let  her  dress  fall 
down  to  her  hips.  And  the  Plain  of  High 
Heaven  resounded  as  the  eight  hundred 
myriad  deities  with  one  accord  laughed. 
Thereupon  the  Heavenly  Shining  Great  Au- 
gust Goddess,  hearing  the  sound,  cried  out" 
—  what  is  now  immaterial,  since  her  curi- 
osity once  caught,  she  herself  soon  followed. 
The  next  mention  of  divine  possession 
occurs  in  the  Nihonshoki.  It  is  recorded 
in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Sujin,  a  most 
unlucky  monarch,  with  whom  everything  went 


THE   GO  HE  I.  255 

wrong.  He  naturally  attributed  this  to  the 
gods,  and  determined  finally  to  question  them 
on  the  subject.  So  going  out  into  a  certain 
plain  he  collected  the  eight  hundred  myriad 
deities,  immaterially  speaking,  doubtless,  and 
asked  to  have  his  fortune  told.    Upon  which  : 

"At  this  time  a  god  descended  upon  the 
princess  Yamato-totohi-momoso-hime-no-mi- 
koto,  and  said  {kami-gakarite-iwakii) :  '  Why 
is  the  Emperor  troubled  in  spirit  because  the 
country  is  vexed  and  there  is  no  law  in  the 
land  .^  If  he  diligently  worship  me  and  follow 
my  commandments  the  land  shall  rest  in 
peace.'  Then  the  Emperor  inquired  and  said, 
'  What  god  is  it  that  thus  instructs  me } ' 
And  the  god  answered,  '  I  am  the  god  that 
dwelleth  within  the  boundaries  of  this  land, 
the  land  of  Yamato,  and  my  name  is  Omono- 
nushi-no-kami.'  Then  receiving  reverently 
the  instructions  of  the  god,  the  Emperor 
worshiped  diligently  according  to  his  com- 
mandments." 

A  little  after  this,  in  the  next  reign,  the 
reign  of  the  Emperor  Suinin,  we  are  told  of 
an  image  that  was  suddenly  possessed  by 
the  god  whose  image  it  was.  This  also  is 
out  of  the  Nihonshoki :  — 


256  OCCULT  japan: 

"  In  the  third  month,  in  the  second  year 
of  the  boar,  on  the  first  day,  being  the  day 
of  the  monkey,  the  Emperor,  taking  an 
image  of  the  Heavenly  Shining  Great  August 
Goddess  from  the  Princess  Toyosuki-hime- 
no-mikoto,  gave  it  to  the  Princess  Yamato- 
hime-no-mikoto,  and  charged  her,  saying, 
*  Search  me  out  a  place  where  I  may  set 
up  this  image.'  So  the  princess  took  the 
image  and  carried  it  first  to  Totanosasahata, 
And  from  thence  she  journeyed  to  the  land 
of  Omi,  and,  turning  eastward,  went  by  way 
of  the  land  of  Mino,  till  she  came  to  the 
country  of  Ise.  Then  the  Heavenly  Shining 
Great  August  Goddess  spake,  and  instructed 
the  Princess  Yamato-hime-no-mikoto,  say- 
ing, '  This  land  of  Ise,  this  land  of  heavenly 
breezes,  this  land  of  ever-curling  waves,  this 
sea-girt  shore,  is  a  delectable  land.  In  this 
land  will  I  dwell.'  So,  according  to  the 
words  of  the  goddess,  was  a  shrine  built 
there  to  her  in  the  land  of  Ise."  In  this 
way  were  founded  the  famous  shrines  of  Ise. 

But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  all 
the  possessions  mentioned  in  either  of  these 
books  are  the  possessions  of  the  Empress 
Jing5,  recorded  more  or  less  in  both. 


THE    GO  HE  I.  •  257 

The  Empress  Jing5  was  a  good  deal  of  a 
man.  She  was  a  great  deal  more  of  a  man 
than  her  husband,  though  she  was  only  his 
second  wife.  She  was  simply  Empress-con- 
sort at  first,  eventually  succeeding  her  hus- 
band, who  died  from  want  of  faith,  as  will 
appear  later.  Masculine  in  character,  she 
was  most  feminine  in  looks.  The  Nihon- 
shoki  speaks  of  her  as  exceedingly  pretty 
and  her  father's  pet,  which  latter  fact  proves 
to  my  mind  that  she  was  a  woman  of  will, 
for  I  have  observed  that  fathers  are  usually 
proud  of  daughters  of  decision.  She  it  was 
who  conquered  Korea,  in  the  histories  at 
least,  and  did  many  other  manly  acts,  be- 
sides giving  birth  to  the  Emperor  Ojin,  after- 
wards canonized  as  Hachiman,  the  God  of 
War. 

Apparently  she  was  prone  to  being  pos- 
sessed, and  ended  by  being  quite  intimate 
with  deity.  Her  chronicle  is  a  curious  patch- 
work, pieced  out,  however,  fairly  complete 
between  the  Kojiki  and  the  Nihonshoki. 
The  Nihonshoki,  after  some  Almanack  de 
Gotha  work  introducing  a  few  rather  dry 
domesticities,  simply  kills  her  husband,  with- 
out   offering   us   any   excuse    for   the   deed 


258  '      OCCULT  JAPAN. 

except  the  apparent  unimportance  of  his  life. 
The  Kojiki,  however,  condescends  to  tell  us 
how  it  happened  :  — 

"  Before  that  (referring  to  a  digression 
about  a  certain  posthumous  name  of  her  son) 
the  Empress  was  divinely  possessed  {kaini- 
yori  tamaeriki,  lit.  got-god-approached).  At 
the  time  when  the  Emperor,  dwelling  in  the 
Oak  Temple  in  Kyushiu,  was  about  to  make 
war  upon  the  land  of  Kumaso,  the  Emperor 
played  upon  the  august  harp,  and  Take-no- 
uchi-no-sukune  went  into  the  place  of  inquir- 
ing of  the  gods  {saniwa,  lit.  sand-court),  and 
inquired  of  them.  Then  the  Empress,  be- 
ing divinely  possessed  {kan-gakari  shite),  in- 
formed and  instructed  him,  saying,  'To  the 
west  lieth  a  land  full  of  all  manner  of  precious 
things  from  gold  and  silver  upward,'  etc.,  etc. 
This  glowing  description,  of  which  it  were 
needless  here  to  quote  more,  referred  of  all 
places  in  the  world  to  Korea.  It  is  perhaps 
not  matter  for  wonder  that  the  Emperor 
proved  skeptical  on  the  subject,  and  made 
light  of  the  divine  information  ;  upon  which 
he  was  promptly  killed  by  the  gods  for  con- 
tempt of  court.  After  which  the  Nihonshoki 
takes  up  the  narrative,  and  tells  us  that  the 


THE   GO  HE  I.  259 

Empress,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  pious 
person,  was  much  grieved  at  the  Emperor's 
sudden  taking  off  for  doubting  the  divine 
word,  and  resolved,  woman-like,  to  know 
about  those  jewels,  a  resolve  she  carried 
out  as  follows :  "  Choosing  a  lucky  day, 
she  went  into  the  purification  shrine  and 
became  possessed  {kannnshi  to  naritamo). 
And  this  was  the  manner  of  it :  Giving  or- 
ders to  Take-no-uchi-no-sukune,  she  caused 
him  to  play  upon  the  august  harp,  and 
calling  Nakatomi-on-ikatsu,  the  August  At- 
tendant, she  made  him  the  inquirer  of  the 
god  {saniwa  to  sii).  Whereupon  he  placed 
a  thousand  cloths  and  rich  cloths  upon  the 
top  and  bottom  of  the  harp,  and  besought 
the  god,  saying :  '  The  god  that  spake  on 
a  former  day  to  the  Emperor,  instructing 
him  ;  what  god  was  it  ?  I  would  fain  know 
his  name.'  Then  when  seven  days  and  seven 
nights  had  passed  the  god  answered,  saying" 
—  first  what  his  abode  was,  and  then  what 
was  his  name,  and  then,  in  reply  to  further 
questionings  of  the  saniwa,  Nakatomi,  gave 
instructions  for  conquering  Korea,  which 
had  been  his  object  from  the  beginning. 
The  Empress  being  a  very  devout  body,  and 


26o  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

possibly  being  influenced  slightly  by  the 
glitter  of  the  prospective  jewels,  acted  on 
his  instructions,  and  with  complete  success. 
Here,  then,  we  have  accounts  of  posses- 
sions long  pre-Buddhist ;  their  very  accounts 
being  practically  pre-Buddhist  themselves. 
For  the  Kojiki  and  the  Nihonshoki  were 
written  less  than  one  hundred  and  forty 
years  after  Buddhism  came  to  Japan,  too 
short  a  time  for  it  to  have  draped  old 
lesrends  with  its  own  detail.  Besides,  there 
is  not  the  slightest  suspicion  that  it  ever 
tried  to  do  so.  The  accounts  read  as  real- 
istically Shinto  as  one  could  have  them  do. 
What  is  more,  they  read,  barring  a  few 
archaisms,  as  if  recorded  of  to-day.  In 
skeleton  the  modern  procedure  is  all  there. 
In  these  old  Shintd  biblical  narratives  you 
see  the  same  features  that  you  mark  in  the 
Ryobu-Shinto  trances  now.  The  conserva- 
tism is  quite  far-orientally  complete,  which 
is  another  proof,  not  only  that  the  thing  is 
Shinto,  but  that  the  Buddhists  brought  wnth 
them  from  China  nothing  akin  to  it.  For 
we  may  be  sure  the  gods  would  not  have 
been  behind  their  people  in  the  great  na- 
tional trick  of  imitation,  and  had  there  been 


THE   GO  HE  I.  261 

any  foreigners  to  copy  they  would  assuredly 
have  copied  them,  and  not  have  stayed 
starchedly  Shinto  to  the  present  day. 

In  addition  to  the  interest  of  the  records 
themselves,  the  verbal  evidence  of  these 
records  is  interesting.  The  words  describ- 
ing the  possessions  are  all  pure  Japanese. 
Many  of  them  are  yet  comprehensible,  being 
in  a  way  grandfathers  to  the  modern  terms. 
Kami-gakari,  of  which  kanm-gakari  and 
kan-gakavi  are  euphonic  forms,  means  god- 
fixed-on.  An  intransitive  verb,  it  shows  the 
spontaneity  of  the  act.  This  spontaneity  of 
deity  is  further  dwelt  on  by  tradition.  In 
those  good  old  days  the  gods  descended,  it 
is  piously  taught,  of  their  own  initiative,  and 
not  as  now  because  importuned  of  man. 
Such  seems  a  true  mirror  of  the  fact.  For  at 
first  the  act  must  have  been  fortuitive  and 
sporadic.  It  could  only  have  been  later  that 
men  learned  to  lassoo  deity  at  will.  The 
modern  term  kami-oroshi,  causing  the  god 
to  descend,  marks  the  subsequent  business 
stage  of  the  practice.  Indeed,  this  domes- 
tication of  deity,  this  taming  of  once  wild 
trances,  is  not  the  least  peculiar  attribute 
of   the   far-eastern   branch    of    the   subject. 


262  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Among  every  people  divine  trances  have 
taken  place,  but  to  make  of  the  accidental 
and  fortuitous  the  certain  and  the  regular, 
to  develop  the  casual  communion  into  a  sys- 
tematic cult,  shows  a  degree  of  familiarity 
with  the  subject  peculiarly  Japanese. 

The  word  kami,  which  appears  both  in  the 
ancient  and  modern  expressions,  is  highly 
suggestive.  For  kami  refers  exclusively  to 
Shinto  gods  ;  Buddhist  gods  being  always 
known  as  Jiotoke.  Kami  originally  meant, 
and  in  certain  uses  still  means,  "  top,"  or 
"above,"  and  therefore  was  applied  to  the 
supreme  beings.  It  is  the  same  kavii  that 
figures  in  kami  the  hair  of  the  head  or  top- 
knot, and  that  appears  in  the  expression  o 
kami  sail,  your  wife,  lit.  Mrs.  Upper,  used 
when  addressing  the  middle  classes.  Even 
its  sinico-Japanese  equivalent  shin  shows  the 
same  significance.  For  it  never  referred  in 
China  to  the  Buddhist  gods.  The  two  char- 
acteristics of  which  it  is  composed  mean 
"  declare,  say  ;  "  whereas  the  character  for 
hotoke,  a  Buddhist  god,  means  simply  "  not 
man."  Whether  trance-revelation  lies  hidden 
in  this  "declare,  say,"  is  another  matter. 

Another  word   in    the    bibles  is  worth  a 


THE   GOHEI.  263 

note,  the  word  sanhva.  The  characters  with 
which  it  is  written  mean  "  sand  -  court." 
What  that  means  has  nonplused  the  com- 
mentators, as  Mr.  Chamberlain  tells  us.  It 
has  not  foiled  the  priests.  They  explain  it 
satisfactorily,  if  perhaps  ex-post-factorily,  as 
the  god-interviewer,  what  is  now  commonly 
called  the  inaeza.  The  explanation  of  the 
priests  is  at  least  explicable.  For  "  sand- 
court  "  has  the  same  impersonality  about  it, 
the  designation  of  the  place  in  lieu  of  the 
person,  which  is  so  curiously  conspicuous  in 
inaeza,  the  seat-in-front.  That  it  appears  to 
make  nonsense  in  personal  English  does  not 
imply  that  it  makes  nonsense  in  impersonal 
Japanese. 

I  will  now  give,  from  the  Nihonshoki,  two 
or  three  accounts  of  KiigadacJii,  or  the  Or- 
deal by  Boiling  Water,  which  will  show  that 
the  miracles  are  as  old  as  the  incarnations, 
and  as  purely  Shinto.  The  first  of  these 
ordeals  was  undergone  in  the  reign  of  the 
Emperor  Ojin,  son  to  the  Empress  Jingo. 

"  In  the  ninth  year  (of  his  reign),  in  the 
spring,  in  the  fourth  month,  the  Emperor 
sent  Take-no-uchi-no-sukune  to  Kyushiu  to 
take   account  of   the  people.     Now  at    that 


264  OCCULT  japan: 

time  Umashi-uchi-no-sukune,  the  younger 
brother  of  Take-no-uchi-no-sukune,  wishing 
to  rid  himself  of  his  brother,  laid  charge 
against  him  before  the  Emperor,  saying : 
*  It  has  come  to  our  ears,  O  Emperor,  that 
Take-no-uchi-no-sukune  is  desirous  of  pos- 
sessing Japan,  and  goeth  about  secretly  to 
stir  up  the  people  of  Kyushiu  against  the 
Emperor.  Then,  when  he  shall  have  es- 
tranged the  land  of  Kyushiu  and  called  in 
the  Three  States  (Korea),  he  purposeth  to 
seize  upon  Japan.'  Hearing  these  words, 
the  Emperor  sent  a  messenger  to  Take-no- 
uchi-no-sukune,  to  put  him  to  death.  Then 
Take-no-uchi-no-sukune  made  answer  to  the 
messenger,  saying  :  *  I  am  not  double-minded, 
but  true  to  the  Emperor  whom  I  serve. 
What  is,  then,  the  crime  of  which  I  am  ac- 
cused }  And  if  guiltless,  why  should  I  suffer 
death  ? ' 

"  Now  there  was  living  in  Iki  a  certain 
man  named  Ataeno-maneko.  This  man 
greatly  resembled  Take-no-uchi-no-sukune. 
And  being  troubled  in  spirit  that  Take-no- 
uchi-no-sukune  should  be  put  to  death  with- 
out just  cause,  he  said  unto  him  :  'All  Japan 
knoweth  thee  to  be  a  true  man  and  a  faithful 


THE    GO  HE  I.  265 

one  to  our  Lord  the  Emperor.  Now,  there- 
fore, fleeing  hence  secretly,  get  thee  to  our 
Lord  the  Emperor  and  justify  thyself  be- 
fore him.  And  furthermore  men  say  that 
I  greatly  resemble  thee.  So,  therefore,  in 
place  of  thee,  will  I  die,  and  thus  show  all 
men  that  thy  heart  is  pure  before  our  Lord 
the  Emperor.'  Whereupon  he  slew  himself 
with  his  sword. 

"Then  Take-no-uchi-no-sukune  was  sad  at 
heart,  and,  secretly  leaving  Kyushiu,  took 
ship  and  came  round  by  the  southern  ocean 
to  the  port  of  Kii,  and  landed  there.  And 
from  thence  he  came,  after  much  trouble,  to 
the  court  of  the  Emperor,  and  told  the  Em- 
peror concerning  his  innocence.  Then  the 
Emperor,  perceiving  some  evil  thing  had 
been  done,  called  both  Take-no-uchi-no- 
sukune  and  Umashi-uchi-no-sukune  before 
him.  Thereupon  each  told  his  own  story, 
and  there  was  no  way  to  tell  the  true  from 
the  false.  Then  the  Emperor  commanded 
that  prayer  should  be  offered  to  the  Heav- 
enly Gods  and  to  the  Earthly  Gods,  and 
an  ordeal  by  boiling  water  made  {k7igada- 
cJii  seshinm).  Whereupon  Take-no-uchi-no- 
sukune    and     Umashi-uchi-no-sukune    went 


266  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

together  to  the  banks  of  the  river  Shiki  and 
performed  the  ordeal  {ktigadachi  sn)  ;  and 
Take-no-uchi-no-sukune  was  justified  by  the 
o-ods.  Then  Take-no-uchi-no-sukune,  taking 
his  sword,  struck  down  Umashi-uchi-no- 
sukune,  and  would  have  slain  him,  but  the 
Emperor  commanded  that  he  should  be  par- 
doned and  handed  over  to  the  Arae  family 
in  Kii." 

The  next  example  occurred  in  the  reign  of 
the  Emperor  Inkya  "In  the  fourth  year, 
in  the  autumn,  in  the  ninth  month,  being  the 
year  of  the  snake,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
month,  being  the  day  of  the  bull,  the  Em- 
peror gave  instructions  and  commanded,  say- 
ing :  'Anciently  were  the  people  ruled  in 
peace,  and  family  names  were  never  con- 
founded, but  now  in  this,  the  fourth  year  of 
our  reign,  do  the  lower  and  the  higher 
among  the  people  contend  with  one  another 
in  the  matter,  and  the  people  know  no  peace  ; 
either,  peradventure,  making  mistake,  have 
they  lost  their  proper  family  names,  or  else, 
taking  of  forethought  names  above  their  sta- 
tion, they  have  turned  them  to  their  own 
use  ;  and  there  is  no  law  in  the  land.  Now, 
perchance,  it  is  we  who  are  lacking  in  wis- 


THE   GOHEI.  267 

dom.  How,  then,  may  we  correct  our  mis- 
take? Do  you,  attendants,  taking  counsel 
together,  advise  us  in  the  matter.'  Then  the 
attendants,  with  one  voice,  answered:  'O  Em- 
peror !  if  pointing  out  the  mistakes  and  cor- 
recting the  wrong,  the  Emperor  settles  this 
matter  of  family  names,  we,  even  risking 
death,  will  tell  the  Emperor  the  truth.'  So, 
in  the  year  of  the  monkey,  the  Emperor 
gave  instructions,  saying  :  '  The  Lords,  High 
Dignitaries,  and  other  officers,  down  to  the 
governors,  have  together  made  answer,  and 
said :  Verily  the  generations  of  the  Em- 
peror and  the  generations  of  his  people  are 
both  likewise  descended  from  heaven.  Yet, 
since  the  day  when  the  three  bodies  (heaven, 
earth,  and  humanity)  were  one,  many  years 
have  passed,  and  from  one  name  now  many 
descendants  have  spread  abroad  and  taken 
many  family  names,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  tell 
the  true  from  the  false.  Therefore,  let  all 
the  people  bathe  and  purify  themselves,  and 
let  each  take  oath  before  the  gods  to  per- 
form the  ordeal  by  boiling  water  {kiigadacJd 
su).'  So  the  priest  gave  orders,  saying, 
'At  the  end  of  the  hill  called  the  Amakashi 
hill,  let  an  iron  pot  {kiigae)  be  placed,  and  let 


268  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

all    the   people   be   collected   and   gathered 

-together  there.     Then  shall  they  that  speak 

the  truth  pass  through  the  ordeal  unharmed, 

but  they  that  speak  lies  shall  surely  suffer.' 

"  Thereupon  all  the  people  tying  up  their 
clothes  by  shoulder-cords  and  going  to  the 
iron  pot  performed  the  ordeal  by  boiling 
water  {kugadachi  su).  And  those  that  spake 
the  truth  were  by  virtue  of  their  verity  un- 
harmed ;  but  those  that  spake  lies  suffered. 
Therefore  did  the  rest  of  the  liars  greatly 
fear  and  run  away  before  ever  they  came  to 
the  hill.  And  from  that  time  family  names 
settled  themselves  of  their  own  accord,  and 
there  was  not  one  liar  left  in  the  land."  A 
result  which  doubtless  satisfactorily  accounts 
for  the  present  almost  painful  veracity  of  the 
Japanese  people. 

At  the  dawn  of  history,  then,  we  find  both 
possession  of  things  and  possession  of  per- 
sons already  a  part  of  the  nation's  mytholo- 
gic  heritage.  Almost  as  soon  as  the  gods 
were  they  began  thus  to  visit  one  another. 
Then  so  soon  as  their  earthly  descendants 
appeared  upon  the  scene  they  proceeded  to 
visit  them.  Deity  and  humanity  have  con- 
tinued on  calling  terms  ever  since. 


THE   GOMEL  269 

Thus  we  see,  first,  how  crucial,  and  then 
how  exhaustive,  is  the  proof  that  this  divine 
possession  cult  is  purely  Shinto,  and  that  all 
the  Buddhists  have  done  is  to  set  upon  it  in 
the  most  conclusive  way  the  seal  of  their 
appreciation.  It  pains  me  to  prick  this  Bud- 
dhist bubble,  blown  of  filching  other  people's 
soap.  But  I  feel  the  less  compunction  about 
doins:  so  for  the  fact  that  Buddhism  has 
enough  beautiful  ones  of  its  own  fashioning, 
round  and  perfect  philosophic  films  that 
catch  and  reflect  the  eternal  light  in  iri- 
descent hues  sufficient  to  charm  many  mil- 
lions of  men.  Emotionally  its  tenets  do  not 
at  bottom  satisfy  us  occidentals,  flirt  with 
them  as  we  may.  Passivity  is  not  our  pas- 
sion, preach  it  as  we  are  prone  to  do  each 
to  his  neighbor.  Scientifically  pessimism  is 
foolishness  and  impersonality  a  stage  in  de- 
velopment from  which  we  are  emerging,  not 
one  into  which  we  shall  ever  relapse.  As  a 
dogma  it  is  unfortunate,  doing  its  devotee  in 
the  deeper  sense  no  good,  but  it  becomes 
positively  faulty  when  it  leads  to  practical 
ignoring  of  the  mine  and  thine,  and  does 
other  people  harm. 


THE   SHRINES   OF   ISE. 


Y  first  meeting  with  the  gods,  upon 
the  top  of  Ontak^,  had  been  strangely 
^  unexpected  ;  my  last  sign  from  them 
was  destined  to  be  no  less  so.  It  took  place 
in  an  utterly  dissimilar  yet  even  more  im- 
probable place  —  the  Shrines  of  Ise. 

If,  when  buds  first  stir  with  dreams  of 
blossom  amid  the  forbidding  April  of  our 
New  England  year,  a  man  could  quietly  be 
spirited  away  from  doubt,  delay,  and  disap- 
pointment to  a  certain  province  of  what  is 
still  old  Japan,  he  would  find  himself  in  what 
he  would  take  for  fairyland.  Over  the  whole 
countryside  and  far  up  its  background  of 
hills  glow  cloud-like  masses  of  pink-white 
bloom,  while  upon  all  the  country  roads 
carnival  crowds  of  men,  women,  and  children 
journey  gayly  along,  chanting  as  they  go, 
beneath  the  canopy  of  blossom.  It  is  the 
great  Shinto  pilgrimage  to  the   Shrines   of 


THE  SHRINES   OF  ISE.  2/1 

Ise  that  he  is  gazing  on,  made  every  spring 
by  three  hundred  thousand  folk  at  the  time 
when  the  cherries  blow. 

Up  the  winding  street  of  the  town  of  Ya- 
mada,  the  house-eaves  on  either  hand  one 
long  line  of  fluttering  pilgrim  flags,  the 
gay  throng  wends  its  rollicking  way,  and, 
crossing  a  curved  parapeted  bridge,  enters  a 
strangely  neat  park  in  the  centre  of  a  little 
valley  shut  in  by  thickly  wooded  slopes.  At 
the  farther  end  of  the  open  an  odd  sort  of 
skeleton  arch  makes  portal  to  a  carefully  kept 
primeval  forest.  Through  this  ghost  of  a 
gateway  the  pilgrims  pass  by  a  broad  gravelly 
path  into  a  natural  nave  of  cryptomeria,  the 
huge  trunks  straight  as  columns  and  so  tall 
that  distance  itself  seems  to  taper  them 
to  where  their  tops  touch  in  arch  far  over- 
head. Down  aisles  of  half  light  on  the 
sides  show  here  and  there  the  shapes  of 
plain  unpainted  buildings,  with  roofs  feet- 
deep  in  thatch,  and  curiously  curved  pro- 
jecting rafters  ;  while  under  the  great  still 
trees  the  path  winds  solemnly  on  through 
a  second  portal,  and  then  a  third,  to  the  foot 
of  a  flight  of  broad  stone  steps,  up  which  it 
ascends  to  a  gateway  in  the  centre  of  one 


2/2  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

side  of  a  plain  wooden  palisade.  The  gate- 
way's doors  stand  open,  but  a  white  curtain, 
hanging  from  the  lintel  in  their  stead,  hides 
all  view  beyond. 

In  front  of  the  curtain  lies  a  mat  sprinkled 
with  pennies.  Before  it  each  pilgrim  pauses, 
lays  aside  his  staff,  takes  off  his  travel  robes, 
and  tossing  his  mite  to  lie  there  beside  its 
fellows,  claps  his  hands,  and  bows  his  head  in 
prayer.  Then,  his  adoration  done,  he  slowly 
turns,  takes  up  again  his  robe  and  staff,  and 
goes  the  way  he  came.  For  this  is  the  goal 
to  his  long  pilgrimage. 

That  curtain  marks  his  bourne.  Beyond 
the  veil  none  but  the  Mikado  and  the  spe- 
cial priests  may  ever  go.  Yet  every  now  and 
then  a  gracious  breeze  gently  wafts  the  cur- 
tain a  little  to  one  side,  and  for  an  instant 
gives  the  faithful  glimpse  of  a  pebbly  court, 
a  second  gateway,  and,  screened  by  pale 
within  pale  of  palisades,  more  plain  wooden 
buildings  with  strangely  raftered  roofs,  re- 
puted counterparts  of  the  primeval  dwellings 
of  the  race.  And  this  is  all  that  man  may 
ever  see  of  the  great  Shrines  of  Ise,  chief 
Mecca  of  the  Shinto  faith. 

If  with  the  mind's  eye  the  pilgrim  pene 


THE  SHRINES  OF  ISE.  2/3 

trates  no  farther  than  his  feet  may  pass,  he 
may  well  say  with  the  disappointed  tourist 
whom  Chamberlain  quotes  in  the  guide- 
book, in  warning  to  such  as  would  visit 
these  shrines  :  "  There  is  nothing  to  see  ; 
and  they  won't  let  you  see  it." 

II. 

Indeed,  materially,  there  is  little  within 
save  the  eight  petaled  mirror,  known  by 
tradition  to  be  there,  emblem  of  the  Great 
Goddess  of  the  Sun. 

But  there  is  something  there  not  yet  down 
in  the  guide-book  ;  not  even  fully  appreciated 
by  the  priests  themselves.  For  revelation 
comes  only  to  those  who  stand  ready  to  per- 
ceive it.     It  chanced  to  me  in  this  wise. 

Never  having  made  the  pilgrimage  to  these 
famous  shrines,  I  was  minded,  after  my  inti- 
macy with  deity,  to  do  so ;  and,  accordingly, 
under  the  kind  auspices  of  the  high-priest 
of  the  Shinshiu  sect,  was  properly  accred- 
ited to  the  priests. 

The  Shrines,  technically  so  called,  consist 
of  two  congeries  of  temples  inclosed  by 
elaborate  series  of  palisades  and  bosomed  in 
grand    old    parks.       One   is    known    as   the 


274  OCCULT  japan: 

Geku  or  Outer  Temple  ;  the  other  as  the 
Naiku  or  Inner  Temple  ;  in  ordinary  par- 
lance, the  Gekusan  and  Naikusan. 

An  immemorial  tradition  requires  that  all 
the  more  sacred  buildings  shall  be  torn  down 
and  exactly  rebuilt  again  once  every  twenty 
years.  For  this  purpose  each  is  provided 
with  an  alternate  site  which,  similar  to  and 
by  the  side  of  the  one  occupied  at  the  mo- 
ment, awaits,  vacant,  its  turn  to  be  used. 
There  are  three  such  sites  at  each  shrine ; 
one  belonging  to  the  main  temple  and  two 
to  smaller  temples  a  short  way  off  through 
the  woods. 

The  two  main  temples  are  dedicate,  that 
at  the  Naiku  to  Ama-terasu-o-mi-kami,  the 
Sun-Goddess,  and  that  at  the  Geku  to  Toyo- 
ake-bime-no-kami,  the  goddess  of  food.  For- 
merly the  Geku  was  dedicate,  as  Satow,  who 
made  a  study  of  non-esoteric  Shinto,  tells  us, 
to  Kuni-toko-tachi-no-mikoto  ;  both  the  for- 
mer and  the  present  incumbent  being  deities 
connected  with  the  earth.  With  these  chief 
gods  are  associated  several  subordinate  di- 
vinities. At  the  Naikusan  these  are  :  Ta- 
jikara-o-no-kami,  the  strong-hand-great-god, 
he  who  pulled  the  Sun-Goddess  out  of  the 


THE  SHRINES  OF  ISE.  2/5 

cave  whither  she  had  retired  displeased  ;  and 
a  divine  ancestress  of  the  Imperial  house. 
At  the  Gekusan  they  are  Ninigi-no-mikoto, 
erandson  to  the  Sun-Goddess  and  ancestor 
of  the  Mikado,  and  two  deities  who  accompa- 
nied him  when  he  descended  from  heaven 
to  rule  over  the  earth,  that  is,  Japan. 

Of  the  lesser  temples  nothing  is  said  in 
the  guide-book,  because  next  to  nothing  was 
known  about  them.  Even  the  custodians 
themselves  are  not  aware  of  all  they  guard, 
though  they  know  sufficient  to  have  put  any 
one  who  had  had  knowledge  of  Shinto's  eso- 
teric side  upon  the  discovery.  But  this  side, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  not  suspected. 

Now,  it  happened  in  the  course  of  my 
visit  that,  under  the  guidance  of  the  priests, 
we  came  through  the  wood  upon  one  of  the 
two  smaller  temples,  and  I  asked  them  what 
it  was  called.  Ara-mi-tama-no-miya,  they 
answered,  the  Temple  of  the  Rough-August- 
Soul.  Having  some  acquaintance  with  the 
ways  of  the  gods,  I  began  to  suspect,  only 
to  have  my  suspicions  verified.  The  Rough- 
August-Soul  turned  out  to  be  the  rough 
spirit  of  the  Sun-goddess,  —  not  her  usual 
spirit,   they  .explained,  but   her  spirit  when 


216  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

she  possesses  people.  Once,  they  said,  she 
had  possessed  a  daughter  of  the  Imperial 
house,  many  centuries  ago,  upon  this  very 
spot.  Here,  then,  was  a  strange  temple, 
indeed ;  a  temple  dedicated  to  a  possessory 
spirit;  possibly  something  without  a  coun- 
terpart on  earth,  save  for  another  like  it  at 
the  Gekusan,  which  I  found  in  the  course  of 
the  same  day. 

To  the  Ise  priests  all  this  was  but  a 
half-understood  tradition.  For  their  sect  is 
esoteric  no  longer.  They  know  nothing  per- 
sonally of  the  practice  of  possession.  All 
the  greater  their  unwitting  witness  to  the 
fact  ;  and  to  the  still  more  important  fact 
which  this  one  proves.  For  it  proves  that 
in  early  days  the  possession  cult  was  com- 
mon to  all  Shinto,  and  not  as  now  the  heir- 
loom only  of  certain  sects. 

So  completely  was  possession  once  an 
integral  part  of  the  Shinto  faith,  that  it 
erected  these  temples  to  the  possessory 
spirits.  Nothing  could  well  testify  more 
deeply  to  belief  in  their  existence,  and  no- 
thing seem  to  bring  them  home  more  closely 
to  their  devotees  than  this  fashioning  of  an 


THE  SHRINES  OF  ISE.  2^7 

earthly  pavilion  for  their  temporarj^  sojourn. 
Among  all  the  strange  details  of  this  god- 
possession  cult,  this,  perhaps,  is  the  strangest 
—  these  temples  to  possessing  spirits. 


NOUMENA. 


I. 


AVING  seen  these  spirits,  the  next 
thing  is,  if  possible,  to  see  through 
them.  For  after  establishing  first 
their  existence,  and,  secondly,  their  identity, 
it  becomes  interesting  to  know  their  essence. 
In  order  to  discover  this,  we  may  best  begin 
by  considering  our  own  spirit  or  self. 

The  idea  of  self,  religiously  known  as  one's 
soul  or  spirit,  presents  itself  to  us  under 
three  aspects  :  as  a  feeling  about  ourselves ; 
as  a  feeling  about  others  as  affecting  our- 
selves;  as  a  feeling  about  others  independ- 
ently of  ourselves.  The  first  we  call  the 
sense  of  self ;  the  second,  the  personality  of 
another ;  the  last,  simply  a  man's  individ- 
uality. 

Now,  to  begin  with,  every  one  has  a  pri- 
vate conviction  that  his  sense  of  self  is  as 
strong  as  any  one  else's,  just  as  he  is  pri- 


NOUMENA.  279 

vately  persuaded  that  his  feelings  generally 
are  as  praiseworthily  poignant  as  his  neigh- 
bor's. Nevertheless,  his  equally  infallible 
estimate  of  others  may  hint  to  him  that 
this  is  possibly  a  pleasing  personal  delusion, 
since  in  those  about  him  he  perceives  very 
clearly  that  in  strength  of  selfhood  man 
varies  markedly  from  man.  Some  'men  af- 
fect him  instantly  and  indescribably  as  of 
strong  personality ;  others  as  of  a  feeble 
one.  Scanning  them  critically  for  objective 
proof  of  this  subjective  feeling  of  his  toward 
them,  he  finds  in  their  behavior  unmistak- 
able signs  that  it  is  founded  on  fact.  He 
notices  that  the  feeble  brother  unconsciously 
plays  chameleon  to  all  he  meets,  while  the 
positive  person  seems  largely  sufficient  unto 
himself.  In  short,  it  becomes  perfectly  ap- 
parent that  men  differ  as  much  in  selfhood 
as  they  do  in,  say,  artistic  taste. 

Just  as  men  of  any  one  community  differ 
thus  among  themselves,  so  whole  communi- 
ties contrast  with  one  another  in  the  same 
way.  The  French  and  the  Anglo-Saxons 
offer  us  an  instance  at  our  very  elbow. 
What  is  more,  both  sides  to  the  antithesis 
recognize  the  difference  perfectly,  and  apply 


280  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

derogatory  epithets  to  it  in  the  other.  Ce 
grajid  origuial  d' Anglais  heartily  despises 
those  monkeys  the  French,  and  knows  not 
at  which  he  stands  the  more  aghast,  the 
awful  sansculottism  of  their  institutions  or 
the  shocking  manner  in  which  they  unbosom 
themselves  to  the  first  comer. 

Another  generic  instance  is  even  more 
ready  to  our  hand.  We  do  not  have  to  go 
abroad  to  find  it.  For  it  is  found  world-wide 
in  femininity.  So  universal  is  it,  and  so 
bound  up  with  the  question  of  trances,  that 
it  deserves  mention  here  ;  especially  as  I  do 
not  recall  having  seen  it  scientifically  recog- 
nized. It  is  this,  — that  self  is  what,  psychi- 
cally, peculiarly  distinguishes  the  sexes.  In 
woman  there  is  a  comparative  absence  of 
Ego. 

With  regard  to  a  want  of  it  in  woman, 
doubtless  there  are  persons  who  will  promptly 
and  indignantly  deny  the  fact ;  certainly  all 
those  who  are  trying  their  best  to-day  to 
make  of  woman  an  inferior  kind  of  man  may 
be  trusted  to  do  so.  But  woman  is  altogether 
too  valuable  as  she  is  to  be  thus  disposed  of, 
and  it  is  precisely  in  her  relative  lack  of  self 
that  her  value  lies.     This  it  is  that  makes 


NOUMENA.  28 1 

her  the  almost  unmitigated  blessing  she  is. 
For  it  is  in  her  direct  relations  with  man 
that  this  quality  of  hers  comes  out  conspic- 
uous, first  as  wife,  and  then  as  mother. 

To  how  many  men,  I  wonder,  did  it  ever 
occur  what  an  upsetting  sensation  it  would 
be  to  change  one's  name  at  marriage.  To 
be  known  by  one  name,  to  speak  it,  hear  it, 
write  it,  read  it,  from  the  time  one  first 
remembered  one's  self,  through  all  those 
years  when  habits  are  formed  and  crystal- 
lized, and  then,  presto !  to  be  known  by, 
speak,  hear,  write,  read,  another  one  ever 
after.  Such  metamorphosis  would  certainly 
give  self-centered  man  a  shock.  Yet  the 
fair  sex  take  their  maiden  electrocution 
without  a  quiver.  Nevertheless,  words  are 
very  telling  things.  It  is  compliments,  not 
good-will,  that  pay  us  the  most  poignant 
after-calls  ;  just  as  it  is  insults,  not  injuries, 
that  stick.  All  the  more  so,  then,  in  the 
case  of  that  word  which  of  all  words  is  most 
one's  self.  To  change  that  would,  to  hard- 
ened man,  seem  dangerously  like  parting 
with  a  part  of  himself. 

Precursor  of  change  it  actually  proves  to 
be  with  woman.     Change  of  name,  to  which 


282  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

the  maiden  takes  so  kindly,  turns  out  but 
exponent  of  the  change  of  thought  in  her 
that  follows  it.  To  a  great  extent  the  wife 
merges  her  self  in  her  husband's.  She  adopts 
his  interests,  acquires  his  dislikes,  echoes  his 
opinions.  In  the  usual  case,  his  intellectual 
property,  in  short,  becomes  hers.  As  a  small 
offset,  doubtless,  to  these  acquisitions,  her 
material  property  became  his. 

She  shows  the  same  self-obliteration  as 
mother.  A  woman  lives  for  and  in  her  off- 
spring in  a  way  quite  impossible  for  a  man. 
A  father  may  care  as  much  for  his  children, 
but  he  cannot  sink  his  own  personality  in 
theirs  as  a  mother  may  and  does.  Her 
thought  centres  in  them  as  naturally  as  his 
centres  in  himself,  with  a  Hke  absence  of  all 
intention  in  the  process. 

Thus  in  both  of  the  two  most  important 
relations  of  her  life  a  woman  shows  a  disre- 
gard and  a  sacrifice  of  herself  which  finds 
no  corresponding  counterpart  in  man.  Man 
praises  her  for  it,  which  is  tantamount  to 
praising  her  for  being  a  woman.  For  in  her 
the  action  is  neither  noble  nor  ignoble;  it 
simply  is.  It  is  also  simply  normal  that  man 
should  appear  a  very  selfish  animal  by  com- 
parison. 


NOUMENA.  283 

Noticeable  as  these  differences  in  the  self 
are,  they  are  as  nothing  compared  with  the 
contrast  that  confronts  an  Anglo-Saxon  in 
the  Japanese  race.  Its  indirect  manifesta- 
tions are  so  striking  that  they  have  found 
embodiment  in  aphorism.  The  well-worn 
epigram  that  the  Japanese  are  the  French 
of  the  far  East  really  rests  on  this.  So  does, 
also,  the  less  trite  one  that  Japan  is  the  fem- 
inine half  of  the  world.  For  her  delicacy, 
her  daintiness,  and  her  dignity  instantly 
suggest  to  our  more  coarse,  more  direct, 
more  original  mind  something  of  the  fair 
sex.  An  etiquette  of  soul,  I  can  hear  some 
one  phrase  it.  Certainly  in  emotion  both  go 
through  the  world  gloved,  but  the  resem- 
blance rests  on  something  below  the  surface. 
Very  different  as  are  femininity  and  far- 
orientalism  in  most  things,  there  is  strangely 
enough  in  both  a  relative  absence  of  self. 

Japan  is  at  present  engaged  in  making  the 
resemblance  evident  in  an  interesting  if  ob- 
jectionable manner.  When  a  woman  once 
lets  go  her  old  rules  of  conduct,  she  will  go 
pretty  much  any  lengths  in  the  new.  Just 
as  a  fine  woman  will  make  even  fine  men 
blush,  so  a  low  one  will  stagger  even   her 


284  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

male  associates.  Impulse  possesses  her  for 
its  own.  There  is  in  her  a  capacity  for  self- 
abandonment  to  an  idea  impossible  to  man. 
Lady  Macbeth,  once  started,  outdoes  my 
lord  in  crime.  She  knows  no  hindering 
regard  for  self,  no  ghostly  shapes  of  other 
thoughts  to  rise  and  cry  to  this  one  "  Halt ! 
enough  !  "  So  Japan.*  Decorous  as  was  old 
Japan,  young  Japan,  inoculated  of  foreign 
fancy,  will  cause  even  the  rough  and  ready 
foreigner  to  start.  Just  as  politeness  stood 
personified  —  one  may  almost  say  petrified  — 
in  a  Japanese  gentleman  of  the  old  school, 
so  rudeness  incarnate  jostles  you  in  his  son. 
A  greater  contrast  could  scarcely  be  offered 
than  that  between  the  pageant  of  an  old- 
time  Japanese  setting  out  upon  a  journey 
and  a  modern  Japanese  arrival  from  one  by 
train ;  the  polite  eternity  of  self-deprecatory 
bows  of  the  one,  the  scramble  for  the  wicket 
of  the  other,  where  man,  woman,  and  child 
bump  and  hustle  their  neighbors  with  an 
indifferent  rudeness  that,  in  any  more  per- 
sonal land,  would  cause  several  free  fights  on 
the  spot.  That  it  does  not  do  so  here  shows 
that  though  politeness  has  gone,  personality 
has  not  yet  come.     Indeed,  the  impersonal 


NOUMENA.  285 

character  of  the  hustle  is  something  which 
may  be  felt ;  for  it  is  as  devoid  of  subjective 
sensibility  as  of  altruistic  regard.  Imper- 
sonality stands  patent  in  the  very  touch  of 
it.  It  seems  subtly  to  embody  the  distinc- 
tion hinted  at  in  the  injunction  of  the  topi- 
cal refrain,  "Don't  push;  just  shove." 

II. 

Furthermore,  this  selfhood  is  a  force. 
We  feel  other  people's  personality  in  direct 
effect  upon  ourselves,  and  we  perceive  and, 
in  a  way,  even  feel  the  effect  of  our  person- 
ality upon  others.  We  also  notice  similar 
inter-effects  between  two  third  persons. 
Like  all  other  forces,  this  force  acts  inevit- 
ably, often  quite  unconsciously ;  and  fatally 
produces  its  results  when  not  opposed  by 
counter  forces.  Married  couples  give  us 
striking  every-day  instances  of  it.  The 
happy  pair  grow  monotonously  like  each 
other,  even  to  the  extent  of  acquiring  a 
certain  family  resemblance.  The  wife  be- 
comes a  replica  of  her  husband,  and  the 
husband,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  duplicate  of 
his  wife,  although  the  effect  is  more  marked 
on  the  woman.     As  the  world  is  constituted, 


286  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

it  is  fortunate  for  domesticity  that  mutual 
transformation  is  the  rule,  since  otherwise 
it  may  be  doubted  if  the  divorce  court  would 
be  the  exception. 

But  such  inter-affection  is  no  monopoly  of 
matrimony.  Each  one  of  us  is  continually 
impressing,  or  being  impressed  by,  others  in 
proportion  to  the  strength  of  our  respective 
selves.  Originality  marks  the  height  of  the 
one,  imitation  the  depth  of  the  other.  The 
action  is  commonly  unconscious  at  the  time, 
and  only  recognized  afterwards.  The  fact 
is  that  character  is  contagious.  All  men  go 
through  life  more  or  less  inoculated  thus  of 
others.  Boswell's  very  acute  case  of  Dr. 
Johnson,  pathologic  as  it  was,  is  but  an  ag- 
gravated instance  of  what  is  not  without  a 
parallel  about  us  every  day.  Plenty  of  men 
contract  effective  admirations,  which  they 
carry  with  them  more  or  less  through  life. 
And  we  none  of  us  wholly  escape  contagion, 
both  good  and  bad.  Whence  the  importance 
of  carefully  choosing  one's  friends.  For  to 
have  a  sufficiently  violent  attack  of  one 
person  insures,  for  the  time  being,  practical 
immunity  from  another.  To  such  an  extent 
are  we  all  chameleons  in  mind. 


NOUMENA.  287 

That  one  self  has  this  effect  on  its  fel- 
lows hints  at  a  common  essence  pervading 
them  all.  It  suggests  one  great  imperson- 
ality of  spirit  underlying  our  several  personal 
embodiments  of  it,  a  certain  cosmic,  com- 
munistic character  for  the  soul.  It  is  for- 
tunate there  is  such  mutual  influence  be- 
tween men.  Were  it  not  so,  this  isolated 
globe  would  be  a  still  more  isolated  spot ; 
love  would  instantly  fly  out  of  the  window, 
and  friendship  itself  be  put  out  of  doors. 

Minds  differ  greatly  in  their  pov\-er  of 
thus  impregnating  other  minds.  But  it  is 
especially  a  quality  of  the  male  mind  as 
compared  with  the  female  one.  The  one 
is  original  and  forceful ;  the  other  receptive 
and  self-adapting.  The  one  imitates,  the 
other  adopts. 

Personality,  or  a  man's  mental  force  upon 
his  fellows,  is  also  in  a  way  measure  of  the 
mental  energy  of  the  man. 

For  we  meet  personalities  that  repel  us  as 
well  as  ones  that  attract ;  personalities,  even, 
that  do  not  affect  us  beyond  a  recognition 
that  they  are,  and  that  they  do  affect,  our 
neighbors.  We  are,  therefore,  conscious  of 
personality  as  such ;  in  some  sort,  we  even 
gauge  its  amount. 


288  OCCULT  JAPAN-. 

Now  the  faculty  of  being  influenced  by 
other  people  the  Japanese  possess  to  a  mar- 
velous degree.  Fundamentally  unoriginal, 
they  have  always  shown  a  genius  for  self- 
adaptation.  They  are  at  present  engaged 
in  exemplifying  their  capacity  upon  a  whole- 
sale national  scale. 

It  is  hardly  exaggeration  to  say  that  Japan 
at  this  moment  is  affording  the  rest  of  the 
world  the  spectacle  of  the  most  stupendous 
hypnotic  act  ever  seen,  nothing  less  than  the 
hypnotization  of  a  whole  nation,  with  its 
eyes  open.  Forty  million  of  folk  there  are 
now  innocent  freaks  of  foreign  suggestion. 
It  is  not  simply  the  imitating  of  foreign 
customs,  but  the  instant  unassimilated  char- 
acter of  the  invitation  that  stamps  the  na- 
tional state  of  mind  as  kin  to  hypnosis,  and 
gives  to  both  their  cousinly  touch  of  carica- 
ture. The  new  idea  is  adopted  with  little 
or  no  attempt  at  adaptation.  Such  sublime 
disregard  of  congruity  shows  the  hypnotic 
completeness  with  which  it  is  received.  In 
consequence,  Tokyo  is  now  one  vast  public 
platform,  in  which  nature  is  giving  an  exhi- 
bition of  ideal  force.  Combinations  in  cos- 
tume as  beautifully  incompatible  as  any  the 


NOUMENA.  289 

hypnotized  subject  can  be  induced  to  adopt 
are  at  large  on  its  streets,  worn  in  the  two 
cases  from  the  same  motive,  unreasoned  re- 
sponse to  stimulus  from  without  ;  whence 
the  irrationality  of  the  result.  Nor  do  the 
other  subjects  see  anything  ludicrous  in  it 
all. 

The  action  may  be  said  to  begin,  but  by 
no  means  to  stop,  with  costume.  Customs, 
from  top  to  toe,  are  undergoing  the  same 
foreign-motived  transmogrification.  The  im- 
itation pot-hat  and  accompanying  aura  of 
billycockism  sit  no  less  comically  upon  a 
kimono  and  cloven  socks  than  does  a  mod- 
ern Tokyo  court  of  justice  upon  an  old- 
fashioned  Japanese  case. 

Hypnotoidal  imitation  is  no  new  trait  of 
these  people.  They  showed  the  same  pro- 
clivity in  just  the  same  way  more  than  a 
millennium  ago.  China  was  the  operator 
then,  as  the  western  world  is  the  operator 
now.  Susceptibility  to  suggestion  lies  at  the 
root  of  the  race. 


290  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

III. 

Not  only  can  one  self  thus  sway  another, 
but  from  prehistoric  times  men  have  be- 
lieved that  one  self  could  actually  oust 
another  and  act  in  its  stead.  The  dispos- 
sessing self  has  been  variously  deemed  a 
deity,  devil,  or  disembodied  spirit  —  embod- 
ied spirits  being  apparently  less  eager  to 
leave  their  quarters.  But  whatever  its  moral 
character,  it  has  been  held  to  be  every  whit 
as  existent  as  the  poor  devil  it  dispossessed. 
Among  all  peoples  we  have  instances  of  per- 
sons thus  possessed  by  gods,  goblins,  and 
others,  instances  cropping  up  all  over  the 
world,  from  the  earliest  ages  down  to  the 
present  day.  The  character  of  the  possess- 
ing spirit  has,  however,  varied  with  singular 
complacency  to  suit  the  opinions  of  the  per- 
sons it  possessed.  In  a  simple  society  that 
favored  the  idea,  the  visitant  has  boldly  pro- 
claimed himself  a  god ;  in  communities 
where  this  assumption  was  considered  arro- 
gant, he  has  contented  himself  with  the 
more  modest  role  of  devil ;  while,  finally,  in 
these  latter  days,  he  has  been  fain  to  put  up 
with  being  the  spirit  of  an  Indian  brave  or 
other  worthy  too  insignificant  to  dispute. 


NOUMENA.  291 

It    is   scarcely   surprising,    perhaps,    that 
these  possessing  spirits  should  have  seemed 
actual  beings,  seeing  that  to  common  sense 
they  are  such,  inasmuch  as  they  rigorously 
pass  all  the  tests  by  which  we  cognize  per- 
sonality and  know  one  man  from  his  neigh- 
bor, just  as  rigorously  as  the   unfortunates 
they  dispossess.    This  seemingly  astounding 
statement  is  easily  shown  to  be  undeniable. 
Not  only  to  the   simple,  superficial  eye  do 
the  manifestations  comport  themselves  like 
distinct  personalities ;  they  do  the  like  when 
gauged  by  all  the  criteria  we  are  wont  to 
apply.     For  how  do  we  know  people  about 
us   for   distinct   individualities }     We    know 
them    psychically   by   the    fact    that    each 
seems  conscious  of  himself  and  of  his  own 
emotions,  thoughts,  and  memories,  as  being 
his  own,  and  as  not  being  anybody  else's. 
The  same  is  true  of  these  spirits.     Each  is 
evidently  conscious  of  itself,  and  conscious 
of    the    distinction    between    itself   and   all 
other  selves,  the  man,  in  whose  body  it  is, 
included.     It  has   its  own  emotions    which 
are  not  his  ;  its  own  thoughts,  which  are  not 
his  ;  its  own  memories,  which  are    not  his. 
It  not  only  denies  that  it  is  he ;  it  really 


292  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

knows  nothing  of  all  those  states  of  con- 
sciousness which  alone  are  he.  Except  as 
an  outsider,  it  neither  knows  him,  nor  he  it. 

It  does  not,  of  course,  follow  from  the 
undeniable  fact  of  its  distinct  psychical  ex- 
istence that  it  is  either  a  god  or  a  devil.  To 
jump  to  this  conclusion  is  a  quite  unwarrant- 
able assumption  of  divinity.  But  the  imma- 
teriality of  the  god  does  not  invalidate  the 
actuality  of  the  so-called  spirit.  Because 
Smith  may  erroneously  be  called  Jones, 
does  not  jeopardize  the  existence  of  Smith, 
though  it  may  considerably  imperil  the  exist- 
ence of  Jones. 

The  reconciliation  of  these  two  separate 
selves  consists,  as  we  shall  see  later,  in  a 
certain  denial  of  self  altogether. 

Now,  besides  revealing  so  much,  common 
to  all  manifestations,  these  Shinto  ones  re- 
veal indirectly  considerably  more.  In  the 
first  place,  they  disclose  the  fact  that  the 
Japanese  race  is  very  easily  possessed. 
They  do  this,  first,  by  their  amount,  and 
secondly,  as  significantly,  by  their  character. 

Their  quantity  we  have  seen  to  be  some- 
thing enormous.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no 
other  nation  of  forty  millions  of  people  has 


NOUMENA.  293 

ever  produced  its  parallel.  For  not  only  is 
each  form  surprisingly  common,  but  there 
are  such  a  surprising  number  of  forms. 
There  is  intentional  possession,  and  posses- 
sion unintentional ;  possession  by  the  media- 
tion of  the  church,  and  possession  immedi- 
ately by  the  devil ;  beneficent  possession  by 
dead  men,  and  malevolent  possession  by  live 
beasts.  There  is,  in  short,  possession  by 
pretty  much  every  kind  of  creature,  except 
by  other  living  men. 

This  omission  is  highly  significant.  For 
it  shows  that  no  Japanese  personality  of  itself 
has  proved  potent  enough  thus  to  affect  its 
fellows  ;  from  which  it  instantly  follows  that 
the  great  extent  possession  has  reached  in 
Japan  is  not  due  to  an  excess  of  personality, 
but  to  a  lack  of  it.  As  collateral  evidence  of 
this,  is  the  fact  that  mesmerism,  hypnotism, 
and  the  like,  were  unknown  in  Japan  till 
introduced  there  by  the  western  world ;  ab- 
sent, not  from  dearth  of  subjects,  but  from 
dearth  of  hypnotizers. 

Even  more  subtly  significant  is  the  quality 
of  the  possession.  Fortuitous,  of  course,  at 
first,  god-possession  in  Japan  has  passed 
from   the  spontaneous   into  the  systematic 


294  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Stage.  From  being  wild,  the  possessing 
spirits  have  become  tame.  Deity  has  been 
domesticated.  Originally  a  voluntary  act  of 
god  upon  involuntary-  man,  possession  has 
become  practically  an  involuntary  divine 
acquiescence  to  human  constrainment.  The 
lightning,  in  short,  has  been  turned  into  ser- 
viceable electricity. 

This  constrainment  of  deity  is  no  new 
thing  there.  It  had  already  come  about  in 
prehistoric  times,  as  the  Kojiki  and  Nihon- 
shoki  show.  Since  then  it  has  been  more 
and  more  systematized  till  it  has  now  grown 
into  a  regular  business,  done  as  a  matter  of 
course.     Comment  on  this  is  needless. 

The  trance  itself  tells  the  same  story,  in 
the  ease  with  which  the  possession  is  ef- 
fected. For  the  closer  the  normal  state  lies 
to  the  abnormal  one,  the  less  the  wrench  in 
passing  from  the  one  to  the  other,  and  the 
more  seemingly  natural  the  latter  when  en- 
tered. Now  compared  with  mediumistic 
trances,  the  Shint5  possessions  are  decent, 
gentlemanly  affairs.  There  is,  indeed,  the 
initial  throe  and  the  subsequent  quiver,  but 
the  one  is  not  an  epileptic  portal  to  a  gen- 
eral epileptic  appearance  throughout,  which 


NOUMENA.  295 

SO  disgusts  a  looker-on  in  possessions  by 
mediums.  The  Shinto  gods  may  be  dull, 
but  they  are  at  least  decorous,  whereas  the 
mediumistic  spirits  are  most  undesirable 
company.  And  this  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  in  America  the  subjects  are  usually 
women,  from  whom  one  would  expect  more 
ladylike  behavior. 

■  For  to  be  easily  controlled  abnormally  is 
as  much  a  characteristic  of  woman  as  to  be 
easily  influenced  normally.  Spirits  appar- 
ently have  always  been  perfectly  aware  of 
this.  From  the  earliest  times  they  have 
shown  a  pardonable  preference  for  possess- 
ing her.  The  divinely  inspired  prophetess 
was  a  regular  appurtenance  of  ancient  re- 
ligions. And  that  the  spirits  are  still  as 
partial  to  her  as  ever  is  shown  by  the  present 
preponderance  of  female  mediums.  For  that 
the  female  monopoly  of  the  business  is  due 
to  natural  capacity,  and  not  simply  to  sur- 
plusage of  the  sex,  is  hinted  at  by  the  host 
of  shams  which  the  apparently  lucrative 
character  of  the  business  is  able  to  support. 

Hypnotism  tells  the  same  story.  In  spite 
of  authoritative  statements  to  the  contrary, 
women    are    naturally    more    hypnotizable. 


296  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

than  men.  That  the  opposite  has  been 
stated  to  be  the  case  would  seem  to  be  due 
to  the  not  uncommon  fallacy  of  not  suffi- 
ciently simplifying  the  experiments.  For 
there  are  two  factors  that  enter  into  the  re- 
sult beside  the  skill  of  the  operator  :  the 
natural  capacity  of  the  subject  and  the  de- 
gree to  which  he  is  made  unconsciously  to 
cooperate  to  his  own  suppression.  Indeed, 
just  as  no  one  may  be  hypnotized  against 
his  will,  so  in  all  cases  the  subject  really 
hypnotizes  himself.  The  art  of  the  operator 
simply  consists  in  getting  him,  more  or  less 
unwittingly,  to  do  this.  The  greater  the 
natural  aptitude  of  the  subject,  the  less  the 
art  necessary  in  the  operator.  To  get  the 
best  experiments,  therefore,  we  should  elim- 
inate as  much  as  may  be  the  latter's  skill. 
The  tyro  of  an  hypnotist  is  thus  the  man 
whose  experiments  are  really  to  the  point  ; 
and  every  tyro  in  this  art  of  recreating  per- 
sonality knows  that,  unlike  the  original  crea- 
tor of  it,  "his  prentice  hand"  he  tries  on 
"  woman,"  not  "  man,"  because  thus  he 
stands  the  greater  chance  of  succeeding. 

Woman's  superior  capacity  for  being  pos- 
sessed shows  itself  even  among  the  Japanese. 


NOUMENA.  297 

The  Nichiren  Buddhists,  with  praiseworthy 
astuteness,  employ  women  as  vehicles  for  the 
divine  descent  for  this  very  reason,  and  the 
resulting  trance  is  so  easily  entered  as  some- 
times to  pass  counterfeit  for  a  sham. 

The  French  display  a  like  proneness  to 
altro-possession.  Had  they  not  been  rela- 
tively easily  influenced,  Mesmer  would  not 
have  failed  of  a  livelihood  in  Vienna  to  be- 
come the  rage  in  Paris  ;  nor  would  Char- 
cot and  Nancy  have  been  the  pioneer  names 
of  modern  hypnotism.  For  an  art  does  not 
become  the  vogue  among  those  who  have 
no  natural  aptitude  for  it.  Nature  divorces 
such  incompatibility  of  temper.  Priority  of 
practice  is  thus  the  best  proof  of  fitness. 

Now  it  is  these  same  three  classes  of 
mind,  the  far-oriental,  the  feminine  and  the 
French,  different  as  they  otherwise  are,  that 
vire  saw  to  be  relatively  so  impersonal.  Per- 
sonality, then,  appears  to  be  the  opposite 
pole  to  proneness  to  possession.  Spirits  of 
this  world  and  of  the  next  would  seem  to 
have  a  reciprocatory  action  in  their  posses- 
sion of  the  human  body ;  the  more  man  the 
less  god.  This  suggests  that  the  qualitative 
difference  between  selves  is  in  some  sort  a 


298  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

quantitative  one.  Self  would  appear  to  be 
a  something  capable  of  more  or  less  ;  inas- 
much as  a  man  who  is  not  much  himself  at 
most  finds  it  more  facile  to  become  some  one 
else  on  occasion  ;  an  instance  of  the  general 
principle  that  it  is  easier  to  introduce  a 
substance  into  a  comparative  void  than  into 
space  already  occupied ;  and  this  in  fact  is 
what  I  conceive  happens ;  not  materially, 
but  kinematically.  For  though  we  do  not 
here  introduce  matter,  we  do,  as  I  shall 
hope  to  show,  introduce  motion. 

IV. 

To  do  this  we  must  again  have  recourse  to 
ourselves,  and  diagnose,  if  we  may,  our  own 
spirit. 

Now  on  looking  into  ourselves  to  see  what 
ourselves  may  be,  of  what  are  we  made 
aware  }  For  my  part  I  am  conscious  of  a 
kaleidoscopic  series  of  thoughts.  These  suc- 
cessive dissolving  views  of  mine  seem  to  me 
to  have  about  as  much  inter-connection  as 
kaleidoscopic  combinations  generally,  and  I 
seem  to  have  about  as  much  influence  over 
their  appearance  as  I  should  have  over  those 
of   that  delightful  but  unpredicable  instru- 


NOUMENA.  299 

ment,  if  by  attention  I  could  induce  it  to 
evolve  along  some  slightly  definite  line.  In 
other  words,  I  am  conscious  at  first  sight  of 
what  we  call  ideas  and  will,  and  that  the 
latter  has  a  certain  limited  effect  upon  the 
former. 

My  next  discovery  is  that  this  power  of 
my  will  is  not  a  directly  creative  force  at  all. 
Not  only  can  I  acquire  no  new  mental  prop- 
erty by  simply  willing  to  have  it ;  I  cannot 
even  lay  my  hand  on  what  is  already  my 
own,  when  I  would.  For  I  can  neither  think 
a  new  idea  by  direct  exercise  of  will,  nor  can 
I  directly  recall  a  memory  when  I  please. 
All  I  can  do  is  hold  on  to,  or  let  go,  what 
my  stream  of  thought  is  kind  enough  to  pre- 
sent me  with.  By  choosing  to  attend  to  any 
particular  idea  that  chances  to  come  along, 
I  allow  that  idea  to  beget  others  after  its 
kind  ;  an  opportunity  of  which  it  instantly 
avails  itself.  If  I  pay  no  attention  to  it,  it 
promptly  goes  out.  And  this  is  absolutely 
all  I  can  do.  In  this  pitifully  feeble  fashion 
I  manage  to  live,  move,  and  have  my  being 
in  the  firm  belief  that  I  could  do  almost 
anything  if  I  pleased. 

Will    then,   consists   in    the    exercise   of 


300  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

selective  attention.  I  choose  to  attend  to 
one  thought  rather  than  another,  and  then  I 
do  attend  to  it.  But  though  will  in  action  is 
thus  all  selective  attention,  all  selective  at- 
tention is  not  will.  For  on  further  scrutiny 
of  ray  stream  of  thought  I  am  made  aware 
rather  startiingly  that  will  meddles  with  it 
uncommonly  little.  Observation  shows  me 
that  the  like  is  true  of  my  fellows.  Indeed, 
the  greater  part  of  all  our  lives  is  made  up 
of  will-less  action,  of  simply  thinking  the 
act  and  then  doing  it  without  any  exercise 
of  will  at  all.  Yet  we  are  not  conscious  of 
being  our  own  on-lookers  merely.  On  the 
contrary,  we  feel  very  poignantly  that  we  live 
in  this  pageant  that  unrolls  itself  before  the 
mind's  eye.  We  feel  this  because  selective 
attention  is  busy  all  the  while,  whether  we 
will  or  no,  and  we  are  quite  aware  that  it  is 
thus  at  work  involuntarily. 

In  the  case  of  this  involuntary  attention, 
the  power  behind  the  throne  seems  to  be 
quite  simply  the  interest  the  particular  idea 
possesses  for  us.  If  the  idea  appeals  to  us, 
we  attend  to  it  in  spite  of  ourselves.  We 
can,  indeed,  often  catch  ourselves  led  pleased 
captive   thus  to   some  fascinating  thought, 


NOUMENA.  301 

remonstrating  impotently  as  it  drags  us  after 
it.     It  rivets,  as  we  say,  our  attention. 

In  short,  involuntary  attention  is  simply 
the  dynamic  outcome  of  the  idea.  The  idea 
results  as  fatalistically  in  turning  and  fasten- 
ing our  attention  as  a  bright  object  does  in 
rotating  the  fovea  upon  itself,  or  as  the  per- 
cussion of  the  cap  does  in  the  discharge  of 
the  gun. 

Now  voluntary  attention  appears  to  differ 
from  the  involuntary  kind  not  the  least  in 
attent,  but  only  in  intent.  We  seem  in  the 
latter  case  to  choose  which  idea  we  shall 
press  upon,  the  consequent  pressure  proving 
quite  similar  in  both. 

In  our  search  for  the  noumenal,  then,  in 
what  we  call  will,  we  are  driven  back  upon 
the  act  of  choice  alone. 

Now  when  we  search  for  the  cause  of  our 
choice  we  always  bring  up  against  some  de- 
termining thought.  Whenever  we  succeed 
in  overtaking  that  will-o'-the-wisp,  our  own 
will,  and  triumphantly  clutch  it,  we  find  in- 
variably that  we  have  caught  —  an  idea. 
Why  am  I  willing  to  write  these  words,  when 
as  a  matter  of  fact  I  am  tempted  to  lie  on 
the  grass  and  gaze  into  the  drifting  islands 


302  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

of  cloud?  Because  I  decided  yesterday 
that  I  would  —  an  idea  —  or  because  it  will 
be  pleasurable  later  to  have  done  so  —  an 
idea  —  or  simply  to  prove  to  myself  that  I 
have  a  will  —  an  idea  again  sarcastically  bob- 
bing up.  Every  time  that  I  think  to  have 
closed  upon  that  elusive  force,  the  will,  I  find 
myself  left  grasping  a  palpable  idea. 

Yet  we  call  ourselves  conscious  of  the 
autonomy  of  our  will.  Nor  will  I  yet  say  that 
we  are  not.  What  I  will  say  is  that  we  should 
be  just  as  conscious  of  the  fact  were  the  fact 
not  so.  For  that  only  is  not  free  which  is 
determined  from  without.  Now  whether  the 
will  were  a  noumenistic  priniinn  mobile,  or  a 
mere  dynamic  outcome  of  the  idea,  it  would 
in  either  case  be  determined  from  within 
and  would  necessarily,  therefore,  seem  free. 

But  we  may  go  further.  Whatever  will 
be,  it  is  dependent  for  its  existence  in  con- 
sciousness upon  the  existence  of  ideas.  This 
is  palpably  instanced  every  day  of  our  lives. 
For  we  are  constantly  conscious  of  ideas 
without  will ;  we  are  never  conscious  of  will 
without  ideas.  Further  yet,  in  these  will- 
less  yet  conscious  times,  we  are  quite  aware 
of  ourselves  as  being  ourselves.     Will,  there- 


NOUMENA.  303 

fore,  except  as  included  in  the  ideas,  is  not 
of  the  essence  of  the  Ego.  For  a  thing 
which  only  pays  us  visits  in  this  manner 
and  is  distinctly  recognized  as  doing  so  can 
be  no  indispensable  part  of  that  innermost 
something  each  of  us  calls  "I." 

Lastly,  will  appears  to  be  quite  uncomplex- 
ioned.  Nobody  pretends  that  his  will  dif- 
fers from  his  neighbor's,  except  in  strength, 
that  is,  in  amount.  It  differs  in  its  applica- 
tion, but  not  in  itself.  It  works  in  one  man 
on  one  thing  ;  in  another,  on  another  :  but 
that  which  works  seems  essentially  the  same 
in  both.  Will  acts,  in  short,  like  any  other 
impersonal  force.  Either,  therefore,  will  is 
the  I  only  as  included  in  the  Idea,  or  it  is 
in  no  personal  sense  the  I  at  all. 

Now  the  method  of  getting  into  the  trance 
state  has  something  very  apposite  and  im- 
portant to  say  about  all  this.  For  the  en- 
trance to  that  peculiar  condition  lies  through 
an  abnormal  use  of  selective  attention.  By 
keeping  the  attention  fixed  long  enough  on  a 
very  insipid  idea,  or,  better  yet,  upon  nothing 
at  all,  out  go  both  ideas  and  will ;  that  is, 
will  can  inadvertently  bring  about  its  own 
extinction  when  intent  upon  the  extinction 


304  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

of  something  else,  namely,  an  idea.  But  of 
this  truly  astounding  performance  on  the 
part  of  the  will  we  need  not  go  to  trances  to 
become  astonished  witness.  For  each  one 
of  us  has  experience  of  it,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  whenever  he  falls  asleep.  In  lapsing 
into  our  nightly  unconsciousness,  it  is  our 
ideas  that  seem  to  go  out  directly,  our  will 
only  seeming  indirectly  compelled  to  go 
with  them.  Baron  Munchausen  lifting  him- 
self up  by  his  pig-tail  is  child's  play  to  this 
self-extinction  of  the  will,  if  will  be  in  any 
sense  the  self. 


Having  thus  eliminated  will  from  any  in- 
trinsic participation  in  the  self  except  as 
included  in  the  idea,  we  have  reduced  self  to 
ideas.  Of  what  ideas,  then,  is  it  made  up  ? 
Clearly  not  of  the  simple  main  idea  of  the 
moment.  No  one  ever  mistook  his  idea  of 
a  beefsteak  for  himself.  But  one's  train  of 
thought  is  not  wholly  composed  of  beef- 
steaks or  philosophy,  or  any  other  chain  of 
single  thoughts.  For  first  it  is  a  palpable 
fact  of  consciousness  that  the  object  of 
consciousness    is    complex.      Take  the   sim- 


NOUMENA.  305 

plest  act  of  discrimination,  for  example. 
The  Irishman  who  said  he  could  tell  two 
brothers  apart  when  he  saw  them  together, 
unwittingly  hit  the  psychologic  bull's-eye. 
For  the  only  conceivable  way  of  telling  two 
things  apart  is  by  thinking  them  together. 
But  the  momentary  me  is  more  complex 
than  this.  There  are,  in  the  first  place,  a 
host  of  fainter  ideas  or  suggestions  of  them, 
which  the  main  idea  drags  up,  attached  to 
it,  and  secondly,  there  are  the  fading  forms 
of  previous  ideas  and  the  brightening  forms 
of  coming  ones,  side  by  side  with  the  cul- 
minating thought  of  the  moment.  For  it  is 
no  less  a  palpable  fact  that  ideas  take  time 
to  develop  into  distinctness,  and  even  more 
time  to  fade  again  into  oblivion.  Dissolving 
views  upon  our  cortical  screen,  the  last  grows 
ghostly  as  the  next  takes  shape,  and  lingers 
some  seconds  ere  it  vanishes  quite.  It  is 
this  corona  of  past,  present,  and  nascent 
thought,  limning  the  central  idea  of  the 
moment  that  gives  that  idea  its  setting,  and 
us  our  sense  of  self. 

As  a  proof  of  this,  an  idea  of  our  own 
which  came  to  us  unhaloed,  however  brilliant 
it  may  have  been,  is  often  subsequently  rec- 


306  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

ognized  so  little  for  our  own  that  at  times 
we  feel  conscientious  scruples  about  claim- 
ing it.  Such  self-abnegation  fortunately, 
perhaps,  is  rare.  For  an  assumption  of  prob- 
ability induces  us  instantly  to  appropriate 
whatever  has  not  upon  it  the  stamp  of 
another.  Nor  is  there  a  more  poignant  cha- 
grin than  to  awake  suddenly  to  the  know- 
ledge, through  some  casually  resurrected 
detail,  that  our  yesterday's  self-imputed  epi- 
gram had  been  previously  told  us  by  Jones. 
Another's  seal  consists  in  those,  often  almost 
indescribable,  concomitant  details  in  which 
the  foreign  idea  comes  to  us  fringed,  its 
setting  in  short.  This  differs  entirely  from 
the  setting  that  surrounds  our  own  self- 
suggested  thoughts.  At  the  time  we  heard 
the  epigram,  which  we  subsequently  so  sadly 
mistook,  we  were  conscious  not  only  of 
hearing  it,  but  of  Jicaring  it  ;  afterwards 
this  acoustic  aura  faded  out,  and  there- 
fore when  the  idea  reappeared  it  bore  no 
identifying  tag,  and  we  insensibly  took  it  for 
one  of  our  own.  For  though  our  own 
thoughts  come  to  us  as  a  rule  quite  differ- 
ently fringed  by  a  halo  of  their  own,  they 
sometimes   have  little  or  none,  and  the  in- 


NOUMEXA.  307 

stinct  of  possession  causes  us  to  impute  all 
such  to  ourselves  —  until  increasing  exacti- 
tude teaches  us  distrust. 

VI. 

Now  of  what  do  ideas  consist  ?  They 
consist,  apparently,  of  molecular  motion.  An 
idea,  in  short,  is  a  mode  of  motion  ;  another 
form  of  that  fundamental,  seemingly  protean 
thing. 

But  to  see  this  we  must  first  be  sure  just 
what  we  mean  by  an  idea.  Now  we  mean 
in  ordinary  parlance  by  an  idea  a  conscious 
pulse  of  thought.  A  mere  reflex  action  we 
do  not  associate  with  any  idea.  We  even 
speak  often  of  having  acted  from  impulse  as 
opposed  to  having  acted  from  thought,  and 
hold  ourselves  largely  irresponsible  in  conse- 
quence. Now  all  such  unconscious  brain 
action,  whether  it  be  so-called  reflex  action, 
or  so-called  instinct  or  impulse,  there  is,  in 
the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  little 
difficulty  in  conceiving  to  be  a  mere  mode  of 
motion  from  one  end  of  the  chain  to  the 
other.  Suppose,  for  example,  I  am  walking 
along  the  street,  and  an  inadvertent  gnat 
runs  full  tilt  into  my  eye.     The  eye  instantly 


3o8  OCCULT  japan: 

closes,  and  proceeds  to  weep  copiously,  while 
still  remaining  tenaciously,  much  too  tena- 
ciously, shut.  Indeed,  I  have  considerable 
trouble  in  opening  the  eye  enough  to  get  the 
insect  out.  Here  the  collision  of  the  insect 
starts  motion  in  the  nerves  that  convey  their 
wave  of  it  to  specialized  ganglia,  from  which 
it  wakes  other  ganglia  that  send  word  down 
to  the  eyelid  to  close.  And  the  stupid  eyelid 
obeys  its  immediate  message  to  my  great 
annoyance.  Now  this  seems  a  perfectly 
clear  case  of  machinery,  one  that  works  inev- 
itably and  certainly.  If  I  can  manage  to 
induce  another  gnat  to  repeat  the  thought- 
lessness  of  his  predecessor,  the  performance 
of  my  eye  will  be  also  perfectly  reproduced. 
I  recognize  this  action  for  a  bit  of  machinery 
so  thoroughly  that  I  do  not  identify  myself 
with  it.  On  the  contrary,  I  am  annoyed  at 
the  stupidity  of  the  eye  in  persisting  so 
obstinately  to  stay  closed  when,  if  it  would 
but  open,  I  could  soon  get  the  insect  out. 
In  like  manner,  instinct  and  impulse,  in 
their  turn,  start  trains  of  automatic  action. 
Indeed,  all  unconscious  cerebration  can  be 
thus  explained  on  general  mechanical  laws. 
In  similarly  explaining  other  brain  processes, 
the  difficulty  comes  in  with  consciousness. 


NOUMENA.  309 

Consciousness  is  still  held  by  most  people 
to  be  a  noumenon  or  noumenal  phenomenon  ; 
mind  being  conceived  by  them  to  be  some- 
thing quite  apart  from  brain,  and  this  in  face 
of  the  self-evident  concomitance  of  the  two. 
Now  when  we  scan  this  distinction  for  an 
underlying  difference,  we  find  it  to  be  due 
solely  to  man's  desire  for  distinction.  To 
put  it  unflatteringly,  it  is  nothing  but  part 
and  parcel  of  our  innate  human  snobbery. 

Darwin's  doctrine  was  held  for  many  years 
by  most  religious  folk  to  be  impious,  and  is 
still  so  held  by  a  few  of  them.  It  was 
thought  to  deny  a  special  creator.  What  it 
really  denied  were  special  creatures.  So  far 
as  God  was  concerned,  all  it  did  directly  was 
to  remove  him  to  a  proper  height  above  his 
handicraft  ;  it  was  man  whom  it  treated 
with  scant  respect  by  linking  him  with  the 
brutes.  Darwin  committed  the  unpardon- 
able sin  of  recognizing  his  own  poor  relations. 
The  justice  of  such  recognition  has  now 
nearly  universally  been  conceded,  and  to-day 
practically  nobody  disputes  the  essential  kin- 
ship of  all  living  things.  But  the  snobbish 
instinct  that  opposed  it  still  survives,  as  it  is 
bound    to    survive    so  long    as  we    remain 


3IO  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

largely  creatures  of  instinct.  For  under  a 
better  name  this  instinct  is  nothing  but  a 
subtler  part  of  the  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion, the  instinctive  holding  to  all  that  makes 
for  our  individuality  and  the  like  antagonism 
to  all  that  threatens  it.  Materially,  this 
prejudice  in  favor  of  ourselves  is  now  con- 
ceded to  be  misleading ;  yet  it  still  survives 
immaterially,  that  is  psychically,  in  our  unnat- 
ural divorce  between  brain  and  mind.  For 
not  to  have  them  two  makes  us  one  with  all 
the  rest  of  the  universe.  Whether  we  sup- 
pose mind  to  be  matter  or  matter  mind, 
we  become  in  either  case  part  and  parcel 
of  the  material  world ;  and  so  tenaciously, 
though  unconsciously,  do  we  hold  to  our  sup- 
posed superiority  to  the  rest  of  the  universe, 
that  we  refuse  to  recognize  the  relationship. 
We  are  very  loath  to  admit  that  we  are  kin 
to  stocks  and  stones  and  other  reputed  sense- 
less things.  This  is  the  gist  of  the  whole 
matter.  Thought  we  deem  to  be  something 
grand,  while  chemical  action  strikes  us  as 
ignoble;  although  the  one  is  every  whit  as 
inscrutably  potent  as  the  other.  It  is  be- 
cause we  really  know  nothing  about  the  es- 
sence of  either  that  we  dare  decide  so  defi- 


NOUMENA.  311 

nitely  between  the  evolutionary  merits  of 
the  two. 

Incidentally  it  is  somewhat  amusing  to  no- 
tice how  thoroughly  irreligious  this  supposed 
religious  view  is.  For  what  warrant  has 
man  to  prescribe  laws  to  an  omnipotent  crea- 
tor and  to  turn  up  his  human  nose  at  one 
mode  of  creative  action  as  unworthy  to  be 
iised  in  his  construction.  The  dualistic  as- 
sumption thus  carries  with  it,  both  scientifi- 
cally and  sentimentally,  its  own  disproof. 

The  truth  is  that  the  only  logical  explana- 
tion of  matter  and  mind  is  that  the  two  are 
one  ;  and  that  the  life-principle  of  the  whole 
is  some  mode  of  motion.  When  we  have, 
as  we  say,  an  idea,  what  happens  inside  us 
is  probably  something  like  this :  the  neural 
current  of  molecular  change  passes  up  the 
nerves,  and  through  the  ganglia  reaches  at 
last  the  cortical  cells  and  excites  a  change 
there.  Now  the  nerve-cells  have  been  so 
often  thrown  into  this  particular  form  of 
wave-motion  that  they  vibrate  with  great 
ease.  The  nerves,  in  short,  are  good  con- 
ductors, and  the  current  passes  swiftly  along 
them,  but  when  it  reaches  the  cortical  cells, 
it  finds  a  set  of  molecules  which  are  not  so 


312  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

accustomed  to  this  special  change.  The 
current  encounters  resistance,  and  in  over- 
coming this  resistance  it  causes  the  cells  to 
glow.  This  white-heating  of  the  cells  we 
call  consciousness.  Consciousness,  in  short, 
is  probably  nerve-glow. 

Now  we  know  by  experiment  that  the  heat 
of  the  hemispheres  rises  while  conscious  pro- 
cesses are  going  on,  and  does  not  rise  to  the 
same  degree  when  processes  of  more  reflex 
action  are  taking  place  in  them.  Further- 
more, we  have  reason  to  think  that  the  mol- 
ecular action  of  the  cortical  cells  must  be  of 
the  same  nature  as  that  which  takes  place  in 
the  nerves,  since  by  mere  repetition  of  the 
action  the  one  develops  into  something  in- 
distinguishable from  the  other.  For  at  each 
repetition  of  any  brain  action,  consciousness 
of  it  grows  less,  till  finally  we  cease  to  be 
conscious  of  it  at  all  ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
molecular  change  occurs  with  ever-increasing 
ease  till  at  last  it  comes  to  be  performed 
quite  automatically  and  quite  unconsciously. 

Phenomena  of  both  normal  and  abnormal 
states  of  consciousness  hint  that  this  theory 
is  correct,  as  I  shall  now  try  to  make  evi- 
dent. 


NOUMENA.  313 

That  an  idea  is  a  force  that  shows  itself 
as  a  mode  of  motion  is  borne  out,  to  begin 
with,  by  the  fact  that  its  action  conforms  to 
that  of  all  the  other  forces  we  know,  in 
being,  first,  inevitable,  and  secondly,  imper- 
sonal. This,  so  long  as  we  regard  ideas  only 
in  bundles,  as  my  mind  or  your  mind,  is  not 
apparent,  but  becomes  evident  so  soon  as 
we  analyze  mind  into  its  successive  simple 
parts,  ideas,  and  consider  them. 

Some  years  ago.  Carpenter  came  across 
what  he  regarded  as  an  astonishing  abnor- 
mal mental  phenomenon.  It  was  this  :  that 
at  times  the  mere  thought  of  a  bodily  move- 
ment was  able  of  its  own  instance  actually 
to  bring  that  movement  about.  Lotze  im- 
proved upon  this  by  showing  that  the  phe- 
nomenon occurred  with  much  more  com- 
monness than  was  supposed.  Finally  the 
discovery  was  made,  scarcely  second  to  any 
in  this  age  of  discoveries,  that  this  startling 
phenomenon  was  no  abnormality  at  all,  but 
the  normal  function  in  all  its  primitive  nu- 
dity ;  that  every  motor-idea,  that  is,  every 
idea  of  a  bodily  movement,  instantly  pro- 
duces that  movement  when  not  inhibited  by 
other  ideas. 


3  14  OCCUL  T  JAPAN. 

William  James  tells  us  that  the  instance 
that  first  convinced  him  of  this  general  law 
was  the  way  in  which  he  eventually  got  up 
of  a  morning.  In  due  course  after  waking, 
the  thought  came  to  him,  "I  must  get  up." 
But  this  idea  instantly  suggested  the  inad- 
visability  of  doing  so.  The  bed  was  too 
cosy,  the  world  too  cold.  So  he  lay  where 
he  was.  How,  then,  did  he  ever  get  up  .'* 
Consciously,  he  never  got  up  at  all ;  the  first 
thing  he  knew,  he  was  up.  He  had  fallen 
into  a  revery  upon  the  day's  doings,  when 
suddenly  the  idea  that  he  must  lie  there  no 
longer  popped  up  again,  and  at  that  lucky 
instant,  before  it  could  start  objection,  had 
started  him. 

Introspection  will  soon  yield  any  one 
countless  instances  of  the  same  thing ;  but 
it  is  introspection  of  the  second  order  of 
difficulty.  One  cannot  simply  stalk  out  into 
his  thought  preserves  and  pot  his  instance ; 
the  fugitive  character  of  the  action  obliges 
him  to  take  it  on  the  wing.  For  to  catch  it 
stationary,  is,  by  its  very  nature,  impossible. 
So  soon  as  one  thinks  about  his  thinking, 
he  is,  ipso  facto,  engaged  upon  a  different 
thought,  namely,  the  thought  of   thinking, 


NOUMENA.  315 

a  very  different  thing  from  simply  thinking 
the  thought ;  and  the  second  idea  inhibits 
the  action  of  the  first.  The  only  way  to 
become  aware  of  what  one  seeks  is,  by  a 
process  akin  to  the  optical  trick  of  detecting 
a  very  faint  star,  to  look  a  little  off  it  with 
the  mind's  eye.  One  has  to  play  detective 
on  one's  self ;  by  sly  show  of  inattention,  to 
fool  one's  self,  as  one  would  fool  another 
into  being  unsuspiciously  natural.  He  will 
then  detect  instances  by  the  gross.  All  his 
impulsive  actions  will  give  him  more  or  less 
complete  examples  of  it.  The  expression 
"  to  go  off  at  half  cock  "  is  nothing  but  an  un- 
appreciated recognition  of  these  very  things. 
After  thus  recognizing  it  in  one's  self,  he 
will  perceive  it  in  others.  Any  nervous 
man  is  a  perfect  museum  of  specimens. 
While  he  is  listening  to  you,  or  even  talking 
himself,  his  eye  will  fall  upon  a  paper-cutter 
upon  the  table,  and  out  goes  his  hand  to 
play  with  it ;  or,  a  book  strikes  him  as  being 
misplaced,  and  he  must  needs  set  it  right ; 
or,  he  sees  his  pipe,  and  forthwith  proceeds 
to  fill  it ;  and  so  forth  and  so  on.  Each 
new  idea  instantly  produces  in  him  its  fatal- 
istic effect. 


3l6  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

The  reason  we  are  not  directly  conscious 
of  this  force  of  our  ideas  is  that  one  idea 
rarely  has  free  play.  A  second  idea  starts 
to  act  before  the  first  has  finished  and  more 
or  less  inhibits  the  first's  action,  thus  com- 
plicating the  problem.  If  motions  generally 
were  not  complex,  no  science  would  be 
needed  to  unravel  them. 

So  much  for  motor-ideas.  But  beside 
motor-ideas,  there  are  other  ideas  not  con- 
cerned with  action  at  all,  but  with  thoughts 
as  such  ;  ideo-ideas,  we  may  call  them.  In 
James's  matutinal  experience,  the  idea  of  ris- 
ing, instead  of  rousing  him,  roused  first  the 
idea  of  not  doing  so,  by  spontaneously  call- 
ing up  the  consciousness  of  his  cosiness,  and 
this,  doubtless,  prompted  the  happy  thought 
of  a  like  snug  inclosing  of  his  last  psychic 
find  in  some  pithy  phrase,  and  that  brought 
up  the  subject  of  embalming  generally, 
which  reminded  him  that  life  was  fleeting, 
whereupon  it  flashed  upon  him  that  he 
would  better  be  up  and  doing,  and  up  he  got. 

If  thoughts  did  not  thus  run  their  own 
trains,  we  should  be  simple  automata,  void 
of  memory,  and  incapable  of  reasoning;  na- 
ture's puppets  at  sensation's  string. 


NOUMENA.  317 

As  one  ideo-idea  thus  gives  rise  to  an- 
other, so  it  may  rouse  a  motor-idea  which 
generates  bodily  movement,  and  the  circle 
be  complete.  Some  motion  happens  inev- 
itably in  every  case,  were  it  only  the  inev- 
itable dissipation  of  its  energy  in  the  form  of 
fatigue  or  general  bodily  excitement. 

VII. 

So  much  for  the  inevitable  character  of 
the  action.  The  impersonality  of  it  is,  on 
scrutiny,  no  less  apparent.  For,  personal  as 
an  idea  seems  to  be  in  its  manifestation,  such 
association  turns  out  to  be  purely  fortuitous. 
Not  only  is  an  idea  competent  quite  alone  to 
institute  another  idea  or  a  bodily  movement 
in  the  man  himself,  —  it  will  do  precisely  the 
same  in  another  person.  There  are  all  de- 
grees of  such  inter-individual  action,  from 
the  most  partial  persuasion  to  the  most  com- 
plete control.  Its  most  startling  examples 
are  afforded  by  hypnotic  subjects,  who,  at  a 
word  from  the  operator,  act  with  even  more 
than  normal  energy.  But  the  same  effect, 
less  extravagantly  accomplished,  may  be  wit- 
nessed in  every-day  life.  In  certain  heavy 
or  preoccupied  states  of  mind,  a  person  will 


3l8  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

obey,  automatically,  a  word  from  another,  to 
be  astonished  the  next  instant  at  having 
done  so. 

A  like  effect,  in  a  partial  form,  is  taking 
place  between  all  of  us  all  the  time.  The 
so-called  personality  of  a  man  is  nothing  but 
the  inter-individual  action  of  his  ideas  upon 
other  people.  In  its  least  complicated  forms 
we  are  quite  aware  that  it  is  merely  the  idea 
that  acts,  while  the  action  is  as  often  uncon- 
scious as  conscious.  Insensibly  a  man  finds 
himself  reproducing  the  ideas  of  those  about 
him.  Especially  is  this  the  case  where  fun- 
damental sympathy  exists  between  him  and 
his  causative,  and  preeminently  so  when  that 
person  is  the  woman  he  loves.  At  times  he 
startles  himself  by  tones  and  gestures  which 
he  recognizes  as  hers,  and  then  glows  all 
over  at  the  reflection.  With  corresponding 
annoyance  will  he  catch  himself  reproducing 
the  tricks  of  manner  of  some  one  he  cordially 
despises.  In  the  one  case,  the  background 
ideas  help  as  a  mordant  to  set  the  dye ;  in 
the  other,  the  ideas  themselves  prove  catch- 
ing enough. 

The  fact  is,  that  ideas  are  as  catching  as 
scarlet  fever.     We  can  no  more  escape  hav- 


NOUMENA.  319 

ing  them  enter  our  minds  than  we  can  escape 
having  material  germs  enter  our  bodies.  And 
the  only  preventive  against  instant  and  indis- 
criminate imitation  is  constitutional  mental 
energy.  For,  in  normal  states,  the  mind 
lies  open  to  any  action  from  without ;  any 
foreign  idea  finds  instant  access  through  the 
usual  sensational  channels,  and  at  once  pro- 
ceeds to  work,  the  possibly  baleful  effects  to 
the  host  of  such  indiscriminate  hospitality 
being  tempered  by  the  simple  choking  upon 
the  premises  of  disagreeable  outsiders  after 
admission.  The  measure  of  success  which 
the  intruder  achieves  is  determined  by  the 
amount  of  opposition  it  arouses.  The  more 
vacuous  the  host,  the  more  the  stranger  has 
his  own  sweet  way.  In  hypnotic  subjects, 
where  the  mind  is  otherwise  blank,  any  idea, 
if  once  introduced,  receives  actually  more 
honor  than  it  is  accustomed  to  at  home.  A 
consideration,  this,  of  the  proverbial  prophet 
kind,  paralleled  by  the  greater  respect  a 
policeman  inspires  in  small  boys  who  are 
unacquainted  with  him,  or  by  the  way  in 
which  a  newspaper's  editorials  impress  a 
simple  public  for  their  apparent  imperson- 
ality.    For  the  idea  of  another's  personality 


320  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

instinctively  rouses  opposition ;  while,  contra- 
riwise, that  of  one's  own  inspires  one's  self 
with  distrust,  so  essentially  modest  is  man. 
But  with  the  hypnotized,  personality  in  both 
phases  lies  dormant.  For,  in  the  hypnotized 
mind,  when  abandoned  to  its  own  devices, 
activity  is  nil.  Hypnotic  subjects,  when  left 
to  themselves,  and  asked  of  what  they  are 
thinking,  usually  reply  :  "  Of  nothing." 

VIII. 

Ideo-ideal  activity  is  a  higher  and  later 
stage  in  the  progress  of  mind  evolution  than 
motor -ideal  action;  response  to  objective 
stimuli  preceding  the  subjective  action  of 
the  mind  upon  itself,  as  the  development 
from  amoeba  to  man  testifies.  Although  the 
protozoon  doubtless  has  consciousness  of  a 
rudimentary  sort,  by  which  he  differentiates 
his  own  absorbing  person  from  his  no  less 
engrossing  food,  his  brain  is  his  belly,  and 
his  one  idea  a  kind  of  conscious  digestion. 
His  mind  is  a  process  of  nervous  pepsia, 
which,  thanks  to  evolution,  has  unfortunately 
become  nervous  dyspepsia  in  such  men  as  let 
their  thoughts  follow  the  same  line ;  so  true 
is  it  that  what  is  one  creature's  meat  proves 


NOUMENA.  321 

another's  poison.  As  we  rise  in  the  scale  of 
animal  life  we  find  more  and  more  compli- 
cated reaction  upon  stimuli  from  without ; 
then,  finally,  rudimentary  reasoning.  But 
even  animals  gifted  with  this  last  capacity 
usually  prefer  to  keep  their  minds  as  empty 
as  possible.  The  idyllic  stupefaction  of  the 
cow  in  the  stall,  or  of  the  dog  upon  the 
hearth-rug,  betrays  the  vacuity  which  is 
theirs  so  much  of  the  time,  and  into  which 
they  contentedly  fall  when  not  pricked  to 
action  by  sensational  spur.  This  beatific 
inanity  of  the  brutes  is  close  of  kin  to  the 
Buddhist  height  of  holiness,  —  Nirvana. 

When  we  come  to  man  we  find  that  even 
that  so-called  reasoning  animal  thinks  as 
little  as  he  may  until  pretty  well  up  in  the 
line  of  development.  He  is  for  the  most 
part  content  to  let  circumstances  pull  the 
sensational  trigger  and  make  snap-shots  at 
life.  Even  when  he  takes  to  thinking,  it 
is  thinking  for  things'  sake  that  he  usually 
indulges  in.  Thinking  for  thinking's  sake-^^ 
is  the  employment  of  the  highest  few — ^"' 

As  a  side  light  upon  this  we  notice  how, 
when  a  person  becomes  weak  from  some 
drain  upon  the    system,  he  grows  less  and 


322  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

less  self-controlled  and  more  and  more  auto- 
matic to  both  sensations  and  foreign  sugges- 
tions. 

Now  clearly  the  amount  of  inly  initiated 
activity  measures  the  individuality  of  the 
man.  For  chance  of  change  is  greatly  in- 
creased if,  in  addition  to  outer  impressive 
diversity,  inner  diversity  have  a  hand  in  the 
matter.  The  more  individual  a  man  already, 
the  more  individual  is  he  bound  to  become, 
and  as  the  rate  of  change  depends  on  the 
change  already  effected,  individuals  must 
grow  ever  logarithmically  apart.  Marriage 
may  retard  this,  but  it  may  also  accelerate  it; 
and  the  last  is  undoubtedly  its  normal  result. 
Otherwise,  why  has  nature  departed,  in  the 
propagation  of  the  species,  from  the  good  old 
protoplasmic  practice  of  identical  fission. 

Less  self  and  greater  facility  in  becoming 
another,  impersonality  and  proneness  to 
possession,  should  therefore  be  found  to- 
gether. And  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  as 
development  proceeds,  nature  gives  with  the 
gift  of  selfhood  the  means  of  guarding  it. 
For  the  same  increase  of  mental  activity 
that  constitutes  the  increased  individuality 
enables  the  individual  to  maintain  that  in- 


NOUMENA.  323 

dividuality  from   disastrous   attack   and  de- 
struction. 

IX. 

Before  applying  these  principles  to  an  ex- 
planation of  the  trance,  let  us  see  whether 
they  explain  that  seeming  inexplicability,  the 
uncommon  impersonality  of  the  Japanese 
mind.  If  a  lesser  mental  activity  be  the 
cause  of  a  less  differentiated  individuality, 
signs  of  that  lesser  activity  should  otherwise 
be  patent.  Now  when  we  look  for  them  we 
find  such  signs  to  be  numerous. 

As  a  friend  of  mine  once  put  it  epigram- 
matically  in  the  heat  of  the  moment,  a  Jap- 
anese does  not  think.  Allowing  for  pardon- 
able exaggeration  due  the  occasion,  he  really 
hit  their  state  of  mind  on  the  head.  Spe- 
cific evidence  of  the  fact  confronts  one  at 
every  turn. 

One  may,  if  he  will,  begin  at  the  top,  with 
lack  of  originality  leading  off  the  list,  but 
instead  of  beginning  at  the  top,  he  may  as 
well  begin  at  the  bottom  and  mark  the  ab- 
sence of  reasoning  there. 

If  in  any  western  land  you  hail  a  cab  and 
jump  in  without  a  word,  the  cab-driver  be- 
fore setting  out  will  ask  you  where  you  wish 


324  OCCULT  JAPA/V. 

to  be  taken.  Indeed,  this  seems  so  self- 
evident  a  preliminary  to  driving  you  any- 
where at  all,  that  it  sounds  supererogatory  to 
chronicle  it.  But  attempt  the  same  thing 
in  Japan.  At  any  of  the  treaty  ports  jump 
into  a  jinrikisha  as  if  in  a  hurry,  and  say 
nothing.  Five  to  two  off  goes  your  man  at 
a  dog-trot  for  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  ; 
then  he  suddenly  slackens,  stops,  turns,  and 
to  his  surprise,  though  not  yours,  inquires 
where  you  wish  to  be  taken.  Not  till  then 
did  the  idea  strike  him  that  he  did  not  know 
his  destination.  He  had  at  first  acted  on 
the  impulse  your  jumping  into  the  jinrikisha 
had  given  him,  to  go  ;  the  afterthought  of 
whither  had  not  occurred  to  him.  His  first 
idea  had  instantly  translated  itself  into  ac- 
tion before  it  could  wake  a  second  thought. 

Instances  of  this  in  more  complicated 
form  are  to  be  met  with,  of  course,  the  world 
over.  Witness  the  adventure  of  the  shop- 
girl to  whom  darts  in  through  the  door  an 
urchin  with  the  announcement :  "  Marm  ! 
your  little  boy  has  just  been  run  over  in  the 
street ! "  The  poor  shop-girl  drops  every- 
thing, rushes  from  behind  the  counter,  bolts 
out  of  the  door,  and  gets  a  couple  of  steps 


NOUMENA.  325 

down  the  sidewalk,  when  she  suddenly  stops, 
throws  back  her  head,  and  with  a  laugh 
blurts  out :  "  What  a  fool  I  am  !  I  have  n't 
any  little  boy  !  I'm  not  even  married  !  "  The 
rascally  urchin  had  sprung  his  mischievously 
explosive  idea  by  hinging  it  upon  the  great 
instinct  of  maternity  latent  in  every  woman, 
and  the  idea  had  passed  into  the  act  before 
the  rest  of  the  brain  was  roused  to  inhibit 
the  impulse. 

The  next  occasion  afforded  the  stranger 
of  remarking  the  Japanese  want  of  reason- 
ing will  wait  upon  him  the  moment  he  gets 
his  eyes  open  to  the  numberless  opportu- 
nities he  offers  the  natives  to  cheat  him ; 
opportunities  of  which  they  naturally  avail 
themselves,  a  kind  Providence  having  pro- 
vided strangers  for  that  special  purpose. 
But  he  will  find  some  slight  compensation 
for  all  he  may  be  eased  of  by  noting  the 
inadequate  manner  in  which  Providence, 
doubtless  with  an  eye  to  humor,  has  fitted 
these  folk  to  such  god-given  avocation.  For 
the  essence  of  successful  deceit  lies  in  the 
apparent  truthfulness  of  the  false.  The  one 
should  be  a  good  counterfeit  presentment  of 
the  other ;  otherwise  it  is  useless.    To  carry 


326  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

conviction,  a  story  must  be  above  conviction 
itself.  P'or  the  art  of  lying  consists  in  con- 
sistency. The  Autocrat's  dictum,  "  Be  not 
consistent,  but  be  simply  true,"  if  reversed, 
would  make  a  good  motto  for  lying,  "  Be  not 
true,  but  be  simply  consistent."  Inasmuch, 
therefore,  as  facts  conspire  against  the  liar, 
it  is  the  part  of  a  long-headed  man  to 
think  out  his  whole  story  in  advance.  But 
this  these  brachycephalic  people  never  do. 
When  caught  and  arraigned,  a  non-committal 
"Don't  know"  keeps  their  counsel,  and  lack 
of  self-consciousness  keeps  their  face.  But 
so  soon  as  ever  they  adventure  themselves 
upon  a  story,  which  sooner  or  later  is  bound 
to  happen,  they  are  gone.  Their  tale  never 
holds  together,  because  never  carefully  con- 
cocted beforehand  to  do  so.  It  is  suc^srested 
piecemeal  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  and 
consequently  comes  apart  as  easily  as  it  was 
put  together.  One's  facile  satisfaction  at 
thus  exposing  the  culprit  is  marred  only  by 
the  culprit's  entire  lack  of  discomfiture  upon 
exposure. 

But  daily  intercourse  with  these  people 
will  furnish  many  pleasanter  instances  of 
the  same  artistic  thoughtlessness.     Servants 


NOUMENA.  327 

will  follow  with  most  exemplary  fidelity  any 
routine  set  them,  and  then  become  hope- 
lessly lost  when  occasion  arises  that  calls  for 
reasoning ;  occasion  consequent  not  upon 
foreign  semi-domesticated  ideas,  but  upon 
ones  of  broadly  human  intent.  For  that 
European  customs  should  be  taken  topsy- 
turvy is  matter  of  course.  For  your  untu- 
tored "boy"  to  put  the  buttons  in  your 
shirt  regularly  outside-in  every  morning,  or 
to  hand  you  your  waistcoat  invariably  inside- 
out,  is  simply  the  inevitable,  if  sad,  conse- 
quence of  generally  antipodal  habits.  But 
pure  forgetfulness  of  a  duty  and  subsequent 
instant  unassumed  contrition  at  sight  of  its 
object,  a  not  uncommon  episode  in  far-east- 
ern housekeeping,  knows  no  particular  coun- 
try, and  yet  seems  peculiarly  at  home  in 
Japan;  the  pathetic  repentance  turning  the 
tragedy  of  your  wrath  into  its  own  farce. 

Now  when  we  rise  from  these  daily  dis- 
coveries to  a  more  bird's-eye  view  of  the 
Japanese  character,  we  observe  the  same 
quality  of  mind  otherwise  patent.  In  the 
first  place,  the  lack  of  originality  of  the 
Japanese  is  very  striking  after  one  has  got 
over  one's  first  dazzle  at  strange  antipodal 


I 


328  OCCULT  japan: 

sights.  The  student  finds  that  what  he  at 
first  took  without  question  for  the  product  of 
home  construction,  in  truth  came  originally 
from  abroad.  They  were  adopted,  and  then 
adapted,  these  delightful  ways  of  doing 
things.  Modification  of  foreign  motif,  modi- 
fication always  artistic,  and  at  times  delight- 
fully ingenious,  marks  the  extent  of  Japan- 
ese originality.  Now  absence  of  originality 
is  but  another  term  for  absence  of  innate 
activity  of  mind.  For  the  one  is  father  to 
the  other.  But  when  energy  to  coruscate  is 
lacking,  action  continues  in  the  easier  round 
of  routine.  Only  in  more  evolved  minds  do 
ideas  bud  in  profusion,  and  they  do  so  just 
in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  development 
of  the  mind.  So  that  a  superior  mind  is  not 
only  ahead  in  the  race,  but  is  advancing  at 
a  proportionally  rapid  rate ;  a  fact  which 
offers  small  consolation  to  those  who  hap- 
pen already  to  be  behindhand. 

A  general  incapacity  for  abstract  ideas  is 
another  marked  trait  of  the  Japanese  mind. 
This,  joined  to  a  limited  reasoning  power,  has 
made  would-be  far-eastern  science  as  funny 
as  far-eastern  art  is  fine.  Before  the  nation 
went  to  Dame  Europe's  school,  its  criticism 


NOUMENA.  329 

was  comic.  Far-oriental  treatises  read  ex- 
cellently well  in  spots,  from  such  antipodal 
point  of  view  ;  the  very  dry  desert  of  thought 
being  occasionally  relieved  by  unintentional 
oases  of  humor.  The  commentators  give  us 
admirable  instances  of  this :  one  of  them 
gravely  explaining  Shinto' s  lack  of  a  moral 
code  by  the  conclusive  statement  that  only 
immoral  people  need  moral  laws ;  while 
another  in  all  seriousness  derives  neko,  a 
cat,  by  a  kind  of  protoplasmic  fission  and 
subsequent  amalgamation  from  the  first  syl- 
lables of  neziimi  konomo,  words  which  trans- 
lated, signify  "  fond  of  rats,"  which  is  much 
as  if  one  should  assert  "  poet "  to  have  been 
evolved  by  a  sort  of  shorthand  from  "poten- 
tial etymology." 

Indirect  evidence  of  the  same  lack  of  ideal 
activity  is  shown  by  the  uncommon  imita- 
tiveness  of  the  race.  For  to  have  a  foreign 
idea  act  with  the  imperative  instancy  observ- 
able in  Japan  argues  a  dearth  of  native 
incumbents  to  dispute  it  possession.  You 
shall  soon  be  given  plenty  of  instances  of 
this  proclivity,  of  a  personal  nature.  Indeed, 
this  sincerest  kind  of  flattery  eventually 
grows  just  a  trifle  flat  from  mere  excess  of 


330  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

expression.  It  begins  at  home  and  spreads 
out  into  the  farthest  suburbs  of  your  polite 
acquaintance.  You  begin  to  be  aware  that 
you  are  setting  the  fashion  in  things  below 
as  well  as  upon  the  surface.  Not  only  do 
hats,  the  facsimile  of  your  own  last  purchase, 
suddenly  make  their  appearance  upon  the 
heads  of  your  friends,  but  even  your  momen- 
tary tastes  wake  instant  echo  in  the  crania 
underneath.  "  It  is  very  odd,"  one  of  my 
very  nicest  far-eastern  familiars  was  never 
tired  of  saying  to  me  as  he  suited  the  action 
to  the  word,  "how  I  like  whatever  you  like." 
This  will  sound  of  course  like  the  simple 
quintescence  of  exquisite  far-oriental  po- 
liteness. But  observation  will  show  you 
that  it  is  in  truth  something  deeper.  You 
will  be  convinced  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
appreciation  after  you  have  been  sufficiently 
its  victim. 

As  for  your  household,  your  peculiarities 
diffuse  themselves  subtly  through  it  to  be 
reproduced  some  fine  morning  in  surpris- 
ingly incongruous  settings.  Your  "  boy,"  so 
soon  as  ever  he  contrives  to  get  into  the 
coveted  foreign  garb,  appears  before  you 
strangely  appareled,  not  simply  in  reproduc- 


NOUMENA.  331 

tions  of  your  habiliments,  but  clothed  upon 
with  your  mannerisms  and  fitted  with  your 
very  gait ;  his  evident  innocence  of  intent 
alone  convincing  you  that  this  is  not  all 
some  put-up  caricature.  Never  had  you  full 
conception  of  how  peculiar  your  peculiarities 
were  till  you  saw  them  donned  by  another. 
Indeed,  the  reproduction  of  yourself  is  car- 
ried so  far  that  from  being  putative  father  of 
your  whole  household  by  patriarchal  custom, 
you  begin  to  question  whether  in  some  an- 
tipodally  ex  post  facto  fashion  you  have  not 
become  its  father  in  fact. 

Lastly,  the  decorous  demeanor  of  the 
whole  nation  betrays  the  lack  of  mental 
activity  beneath.  For  it  is  not  rules  that 
make  the  character,  but  character  that  makes 
the  rules.  No  energetic  mind  could  be 
bound  by  so  exquisitely  exacting  an  etiquette. 
It  must  inevitably  kick  over  the  traces  now 
and  then  till  little  or  nothing  of  them  were 
left.  This  a  Japanese  not  only  does  not  do, 
save  as  motived  to  foreign  ways,  but  left  to 
himself  would  have  no  desire  to  do.  The 
stately  quietism  of  all  classes  of  old  Japan  is 
due,  not  to  forms  that  make  for  tranquillity, 
but  to  that  innate  tranquillity  of  mind  that 


332  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

fashioned  the  forms.  Among  this  stately 
people  there  is  less  activity  of  mind  needing 
constantly  to  be  curbed,  It  shows  itself  be- 
fore long-continued  habit  can  have  set  its 
seal  upon  the  man  himself.  He  inherits  it 
with  the  rest  of  his  constitution.  In  Japan 
the  very  babies  are  unconscionably  good. 


We  now  come  to  a  consideration  of  the 
trance.  To  this  sleep  and  dreams  may  make 
a  fitting  word  of  introduction.  For  the  phe- 
nomenon of  sleep  and  dreams  are  kin  enough 
to  those  of  the  trance  state  to  entitle  this 
night  side  of  our  nature  to  be  called  the 
normal  trance. 

There  is  a  curious  rhythm  in  our  conscious 
life  of  which  both  the  occasion  and  the  cause 
is  cosmic.  Our  spiritual  life,  in  contradis- 
tinction to  our  bodily  existence,  is  made  up 
of  disconnected  bits,  whose  conditioning  is 
emphatically  of  the  earth,  earthy.  It  is  in- 
deed worth  noting,  that  our  minds  should 
thus  in  a  sense  be  more  mortal  than  our 
bodies.  For  once  during  every  rotation  of 
the  earth  consciousness  is  snuffed  out  like 
the  candle  we  extinguish   to  help  us  to  the 


NOUMENA.  333 

act ;  and  though  some  men  be  so  strong  that 
they  can  sit  up  all  night  occasionally,  they 
cannot  continue  to  do  so  for  many  nights 
together. 

This  nightly  good-by  to  self  and  surround- 
ings would  certainly  prove  startling  were  it 
a  thought  more  rare.  As  it  is,  so  little  are 
we  disturbed  at  the  idea  of  it  that  we  actu- 
ally assist  at  our  own  apparent  annihilation. 
We  not  only  put  ourselves  to  bed,  but  usu- 
ally to  sleep  every  night.  We  help  nature 
close  our  eyes,  and  compose  what  is  left  of 
our  minds  to  absolute  inaction.  To  a  cer- 
tain extent  we  thus  hypnotize  ourselves 
nightly.  Indeed,  as  our  minds  grow  less 
active  with  years,  some  of  us  find  no  diffi- 
culty in  performing  this  feat  in  the  daytime. 

All  of  which  shows  that  the  force  which 
runs  the  brain  machinery  is  regularly  ex- 
hausted by  action,  and  has  to  be  as  regu- 
larly recruited  by  rest.  For  that  the  force 
has  the  power  to  store  itself  up  again  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  we  ever  wake. 

So  soon  as  mental  activity  has  thus  been 
reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  we  are  sound 
asleep,  the  potential  begins  to  rise.  De- 
barred from  flowing,  the  stream  of  thought 


334  OCCULT  JAP  AM. 

proceeds  to  accumulate  a  head  for  the  next 
day.  And  in  this  manner  the  potential  con- 
tinues to  rise  till  it  has  reached  so  high  a 
point  that  a  tap  from  some  sensational 
stimulus  suffices  to  start  action  once  more, 
and  we  wake.  Doubtless  we  should  eventu- 
ally wake  of  our  own  motion  if  we  lay  in  a 
sensational  vacuum.  Practically  this  event 
rarely  happens,  because  sensations  of  some 
sort  or  other  are  always  knocking  at  our 
mind's  door.  But  a  less  and  less  obstreper- 
ous one  suffices  to  call  us  as  time  wears  on. 
A  knock  that  would  have  passed  unnoticed 
in  the  middle  of  the  night  easily  rouses  us 
in  the  morning.  Once  started,  the  machin- 
ery is  not  long  in  getting  into  full  swing. 

At  least  this  is  what  happens  in  the  per- 
fectly balanced  mind,  that  character  so  com- 
fortable to  himself,  and  so  disappointing  to 
his  more  enthusiastic  fellows.  In  ideal  equi- 
poise the  whole  mental  energy,  potential  or 
actual,  ceases  approximately  together,  and 
starts  again  together.  All  of  us,  however, 
have  probably  been  abnormal  enough  at 
times  to  have  dreamed  dreams.  Now  dreams 
are  interesting  things ;  interesting  not  only 
for  what  they  show  us,  but  far  more  inter- 


NOUMENA.  335 

esting  for  what  they  intrinsically  are.  For 
they  are  twilights  of  thought,  the  dawn  glim- 
merings of  inner  light  before  that  be  risen 
above  the  horizon  of  full  sensibility.  This 
half-way  state  of  mind  throws  not  a  little 
light  on  clearer  states  of  consciousness  by 
comparison. 

Dreams  betray  a  midway  condition  of 
mental  activity,  where  action  has  reached 
the  point  of  conscious  internal,  but  not  yet 
of  conscious  external,  discharge.  Our  dream- 
life  takes  place  in  an  ideal  world  within,  upon 
which  any  outer  sensation  is  permitted  to 
enter  only  under  some  disguise.  Whence 
the  visitant  came  we  are  not  aware,  for  we 
only  take  cognizance  of  it  after  it  has  donned 
a  transformation  to  suit  the  mental  scene  it 
finds  there.  Our  body  may  perchance  turn 
over  in  bed,  but  in  consequence  we  grace- 
fully float  from  the  top  of  a  precipice  to  the 
bottom,  and  find  ourselves  unharmed. 

The  next  peculiarity  idiosyncratic  of  dreams 
consists  in  their  seemingly  irrational  irra- 
tionality. In  our  dreams  the  most  unlikely 
people  do  the  most  impossible  things,  in  the 
most  easy,  credible  manner.  A  thread  of 
apparent  causation  connects  one  act  with  the 


336  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

next ;  and  the  phantasmagoria  rolls  cheer-* 
fully  on,  breaking  all  the  dramatic  unities  in 
its  passage,  in  the  most  natural  way  in  the 
world.  In  our  deeper  dream  states  the  whole 
seems  real ;  it  is  only  in  our  less  dense  ones 
that  wonder  begins  to  mingle  with  the  show, 
as  a  looker-on,  who  doubts  without  exactly 
disbelieving.  We  have  a  dim  sense  that  all 
is  not  right  without  quite  realizing  that  any- 
thing is  wrong. 

Now  the  explanation  of  this  seems  to  be 
that  in  dreams  our  thread  of  thought  is  com- 
paratively fringeless.  Motion  in  the  mind 
is  confined  largely  to  one  line,  a  very  crooked 
line,  but  a  simple  one.  As  the  current 
passes  along,  each  idea  starts  the  next,  the 
one  most  easily  associated  with  it  at  the 
moment,  without  rousing  much  in  the  way 
of  side  ideas  to  play  critic  to  its  creations 
and  throw  unpleasant  doubts  upon  its  credi- 
bility. 

Such  action  as  this  shows  that  the  whole 
brain  is  not  yet  roused  to  that  pitch  of  po- 
tential where  motion  takes  place  with  normal 
ease.  The  current  encounters  inertia  in  its 
passage,  and  in  place  of  spreading  into  side 
tracts  is  confined  to  the  easiest  path  of  dis- 


NOUMENA.  337 

charge.  But  that  there  should  be  any  cur- 
rent at  all  proves  that  some  part  of  the  brain 
has  risen  to  the  necessary  pitch  of  possi- 
bility before  the  rest  of  it.  Now  what  part 
has  done  so,  and  why  t 

If  we  consider  the  motifs  of  our  dreams 
we  shall  find  them,  when  not  directly  trace- 
able to  boiled  lobster,  to  be  due  to  the  play 
either  of  very  habitual  ideas  or  of  ideas  that 
had  last  preoccupied  us  before  we  fell  asleep. 
The  lover  dreams  of  his  mistress,  the  mer- 
chant of  his  transactions,  the  scientist  of 
his  discoveries.  Each  dreams  after  his  kind, 
because  the  habitual  idea  is  in  action  so 
much  of  the  time  that  its  train  of  cells  has 
become  specially  permeable  to  the  current 
and  vibrates  upon  slight  provocation.  For 
the  same  reason,  the  idea  that  preoccupied 
us  before  we  fell  asleep  is  the  one  which, 
from  having  just  been  in  action,  is  easiest 
set  in  action  again. 

The  motion  once  started  passes  out  along 
those  associated  channels  which,  under  the 
then  conditions,  offer  least  resistance  to  its 
passage.  But  as  the  brain,  as  a  whole,  is 
still  sluggishly  inert,  the  current  rouses  no 
side   motion   to   speak   of    in   the    process. 


338  OCCULT  japan: 

The  result  is  rather  a  lightning-like  zigzag 
through  the  mind  than  a  general  illumina- 
tion. This  accounts  for  what  we  call  in- 
consequently  enough  the  inconsequence  of 
dreams.  For  dream  inconsequence  really 
means  too  absolute  ideal  consequence. 
Each  idea  fires  the  next,  and  only  the  next. 
That  we  believe  everything  that  comes  along, 
and  see  nothing  odd  in  so  doing,  shows  that 
side  considerations  are  not  roused.  For  it 
is  our  side-thoughts  that  cause  us  to  comment 
upon  our  leading  ones.  In  dreams  we  are 
for  the  moment  men  of  one  idea,  with  the 
usual  monomaniacal  result.  Purely  sensa- 
tional starting-points,  a  la  lobster,  rouse  in 
the  same  way  such  simple  dream  trains  that, 
destitute  of  their  accustomed  fringe,  we  fail 
to  recognize  them  for  the  sensations  they 
are. 

In  our  deeper  dreams  we  have  not  even 
those  adumbrations  of  other  thoughts  which 
so  commonly  give  us  ghostly  warnings  in 
our  waking  state.  This  makes  us  fall  easy 
dupes  to  the  deception.  For  where  only  one 
idea  exists  it  must  inevitably  seem  true  for 
want  of  possible  contradiction.  It  simply 
is  till  it  is  contradicted.     As  we  get  nearer 


NOUMENA.  339 

the  waking  point,  the  inertia  grows  less  till 
side  motion  starts  and  summons  obscure 
shapes  of  thoughts  to  hint  dimly  at  delu- 
sion. 

This  theory  as  to  what  consciousness  is 
affords    explanation    of    another   pecuharity 
about  dreams  which   seems  at  first  to  defy 
comprehension,  and  certainly  is  inexplicable 
on   the   ordinary  dualistic   theories    of    the 
thins:  —  their   vividness.       It    is    matter   of 
every-day    notoriety  that  dreams  are    often 
extremely   vivid,  and    commonly   exceed  in 
vividness  like  events  of  waking  life.     That 
they  quickly  fade  out  does  not  detract  from 
the  fact   of  their  vividness   at  the  time  of 
their  occurrence.    Now  the  dualistic  theories 
that   consciousness    is   a   thing   apart   from 
brain  processes,  its  directing  power,  accord- 
ing to  the  spiritualists,  and  its  complaisant 
handmaid,    according    to    the    materialists, 
neither  of  them  can  account  for  this.     For 
if  consciousness  be,  as  William  James  would 
have  it,  a  loader  of  vice  in  the  game  of  life, 
she  shows  herself  here  to  be  an  utterly  un- 
principled gambler  ;    inasmuch  as  in  dreams 
she   actively    abets    delusions    in    the   most 
seemingly  ingenuous  manner,  and  pro  tanto 


340  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

makes  us  go  mad.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
can  consciousness  be  mere  concomitant  of 
brain  processes,  for  if  we  have  here  simply 
a  case  of  increased  current,  why  is  not  the 
rest  of  the  brain  roused,  and  if  we  have  not 
a  case  of  it,  why  are  the  ideas  that  are  roused 
more  vivid  ?  That  the  dream  current  might 
occasionally  be  stronger  than  a  waking  one 
is  possible,  but  that  our  dreams  should  usu- 
ally seem  more  vivid  than  our  every-day 
waking  experiences,  which  is  certainly  the 
case,  is  to  credit  nature  with  a  strange  lack 
of  economy  in  the  running  of  our  psychic 
affairs. 

But  there  is  a  worse  dilemma  yet  for  the 
dualists.  They  stand  confronted  by  this 
question  :  Why  should  consciousness  be 
present  as  markedly  both  when  we  have  rea- 
son to  suspect  the  current  to  be  strong,  in 
times  of  passionate  excitement,  as  when  we 
have  reason  to  believe  it  weak,  in  times  of 
torpor?  For  of  both  these  phenomena  we 
have  instances.  In  times  of  excitement, 
we  strangely  recall  forgotten  things ;  and 
so  we  do  in  times  the  opposite  of  excited. 
Extremes  here  emphatically  meet. 

But  if  consciousness  be  the  effect  of  brain 


KOUMENA.  341 

friction,  the  heat,  as  it  were,  evolved  by  par- 
tial stoppage  of  the  current,  we  see  at  once 
that  this  should  develop  both  when  the  cur- 
rent is  increased,  the  resistance  remaining 
the  same,  and  when  the  resistance  is  in- 
creased, the  current  continuing  as  before. 
We  ought,  therefore,  in  dreams,  to  find  great 
vividness  of  impression  side  by  side  with  no 
impression  at  all  ;  which  is  just  what  we  do 
find.  Though  the  stream  of  thought  in 
dream-states  has  probably  less  head  to  it, 
the  increased  resistance  enables  it  to  pro- 
duce as  much  commotion.  We  may  parallel 
the  action  by  that  of  an  electric  current, 
which,  when  great,  will  make  even  a  con- 
ductor of  slight  resistance  glow,  and  when 
feeble,  will  make  one  of  great  resistance  do 
the  same.  At  present,  this  is  merely  a  sug- 
gestive analogy  ;  but  it  may  turn  out  truer 
than  we  imagine. 

The  theory  here  advanced  explains,  there- 
fore, the  at  first  strange  anomaly,  that  both 
an  unusually  strong  current  and  an  usually 
feeble  one  may  alike  produce  an  unusually 
vivid  consciousness.  For  vividness  follows 
either  an  increase  in  the  current  or  an  in- 
crease in  the  resistance. 


342  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

Conditions  of  brain  torpor  other  than 
dream  -  states  display  similar  phenomena. 
For  a  general  tiring  of  the  brain  is  not  the 
only  way,  as  we  know,  of  bringing  brain 
torpor  about.  Many  drugs  will  do  it,  prob- 
ably by  directly  numbing  the  molecules  of 
the  cortical  cells.  Chloroform,  laughing-gas, 
flowers  at  a  funeral,  will  all  temporarily  take 
a  man  out  of  the  world- — to  say  nothing  of 
the  every-day  effect  of  wine.  But  side  by 
side  with  the  general  torpor  these  things 
induce,  goes  a  heightened  consciousness 
along  particular  lines,  if  it  be  no  more 
than  a  consciousness  of  one's  emotions. 
This  chiaroscuro  of  consciousness  has  all 
the  unreal  reality  of  the  lights  and  shadows 
thrown  by  a  carbon  point.  Opium,  for  exam- 
ple, is  delectable,  not  more  for  the  peculiar 
ideas  it  gives  a  man  than  for  the  poignancy 
of  them.  And  we  all  know,  by  observation, 
at  least,  how  loving  or  quarrelsome  men  grow 
in  proportion  as  they  grow  unreasonable, 
under  the  influence  of  wine. 

Some  dreams  we  remember  after  waking. 
If  we  did  not  do  so,  to  a  minimal  extent  at 
least,  we  should  not  know  that  we  had  ever 
had  them.     Possibly,  therefore,  some  vanish 


NOUMENA.  343 

with  the  fashioning,  or  if  afterward  partially 
recalled,  pass  unrecognized  for  strange,  in- 
explicable impressions.  Those  that  we  do 
remember  we  shall  find  are  hinged  on  to 
our  waking  life  by  the  continuance  of  an 
outer  sensation  common  in  part  to  both 
states.  Were  it  not  for  such  link,  it  would 
be  mere  haphazard  if  we  struck  them  again. 
For  their  train  of  association  is  not  one 
likely  to  recur  under  normal  conditions. 

XL 

But  besides  the  daily  running  down  of  the 
whole  brain  machinery  to  sleep,  due  to  the 
using  up  of  the  potential  energy  of  the  cells, 
or  its  slowing  down  artificially  through  the 
effect  of  certain  drugs,  it  is  possible  to  bring 
brain  action  to  a  dead  point  by  a  simple 
exercise  of  will.  By  shutting  one's  bodily 
eyes,  or  by  keeping  them  fixed  upon  some 
uninteresting  thing,  while  at  the  same  time 
shutting  one's  mind's  eye,  or  keeping  it 
similarly  fixed  upon  some  insipid  thought, 
brain  activity  may  be  brought  to  a  strangely 
sudden  stand-still.  It  is  by  this  portal  that 
the  subject  passes  into  the  trance  state. 

Of  trances,  we  may  distinguish  two  kinds : 


344  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

the  hypnotic  trance,  and  the  possession 
trance.  The  two  differ  markedly,  both  in 
their  physical  and  in  their  psychic  symp- 
toms ;  while  at  the  same  time  bearing  a 
strong  family  resemblance  to  each  other. 
To  an  unsympathetic  bystander,  the  subject 
of  the  one  seems  an  idiotic  automaton,  while 
the  subject  of  the  other  appears  raving  mad. 
We  will  take  up  the  hypnotic  variety  first. 

To  an  outsider  nothing  marks  that  critical 
point  when  the  subject's  statuesque  immov- 
ability passes  from  the  voluntary  into  the 
involuntary  state.  It  simply  was  the  one 
and  is  the  other;  a  passing  over  as  indistin- 
guishable as  the  traveler's  crossing  the  line, 
known  only  by  the  change  of  pole  round 
which  all  things  seem  to  turn. 

If  left  alone  the  subject  remains  in  his 
mummified  state  till  at  last  he  comes  to  of 
himself.  If,  however,  while  in  the  midst  of 
it  he  be  addressed  by  the  operator,  instantly 
certain  striking  phenomena  follow.  Out 
of  a  lethargy  seemingly  too  deep  for  any 
stimulus  to  stir,  he  suddenly  responds  to 
the  operator's  word  with  the  instantaneity 
of  mechanism.  He  not  only  wakes  to  life 
again,  but  as  soon  appears  to  a  most  peculiar 


NOUMENA.  345 

phase  of  it.  For  though  he  responds  to  the 
hypnotist  as  if  he  had  been  simply  waiting 
to  do  so,  his  immediate  response  made,  he 
sinks  back  once  more  into  passivity.  His 
action  would  seem  merely  the  effect  of  mo- 
mentum impressed  from  without  ;  as  if  the 
hypnotist  had  given  his  mental  machinery  a 
shove  which  had  carried  him  a  certain  dis- 
tance, and  whose  impetus  had  then  been 
gradually  dissipated  by  the  friction  of  the 
parts.  This  momentum  gone,  he  becomes  as 
before  —  inert.  He  possesses  apparently  no 
initiative  of  his  own. 

While  the  foreign  momentum  lasts  he 
acts  with  a  perfection  of  performance  real- 
ized in  some  machines,  but  not  by  conscious 
man.  What  he  does  he  does  far  better  than 
the  best  of  which  he  is  capable  in  his  nor- 
mal state.  And  he  hesitates  at  little  or 
nothing.  His  action  is  kin  to  the  somnam- 
bulists who  will  walk  on  ridge-poles  and  the 
edges  of  precipices  without  fear  and  with- 
out falling;  only  that  whereas  the  sleep- 
walker does  so  of  his  own  motion,  the 
hypnotic  subject  does  so  at  the  suggestion 
of  another.  And  the  hint  needed  to  start 
him  is  at  times  inconceivably  slight.     What 


346  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

a  bystander  on  the  alert  quite  fails  to  notice, 
the  hypnotic  subject,  to  all  appearance  sunk 
in  stupor,  perceives  and  acts  upon  at  once. 

Side  by  side  in  the  hypnotized  with  such 
trigger-like  action  toward  his  hypnotist  goes 
in  the  initial  cases  an  utter  deadness  to 
everything  and  everybody  else.  For  him 
nothing  exists  but  his  hypnotizer.  Through 
this  person's  fiat,  and  only  through  it,  may 
anything  enter  the  subject's  world.  At  a 
word  from  this  man  other  things  and  other 
people  are  perceived,  either  when  directly 
pointed  out  or  when  indirectly  involved  in 
the  execution  of  the  suggestion  itself.  They 
can  also  be  made  to  remain  incognito  by 
the  same  process.  Still  further,  imaginary 
things  can  be  made  to  seem  real  to  the 
subject ;  their  non-existence  in  fact  forming 
no  bar  to  their  existence  in  his  conscious- 
ness. If  the  operator  says  they  exist,  for 
him  they  do  exist.  In  the  full  hypnotic 
state  this  is  no  mere  nominal  acquiescence, 
for  the  subject  will  go  on  to  detail  their 
characteristics  and  retail  their  subsequent 
actions  without  further  prompting,  showing 
that  to  him  they  are  thorough-going  realities. 

Now  this  abnormal  action  of  the  mind  in 


NOUMENA.  347 

the  trance  state  seems  most  explicable  as 
follows.  By  the  enforced  inaction  or  induced 
tiring  of  the  brain  cells  in  action  at  the  time 
of  lapsing  into  unconsciousness,  all  activity 
in  those  cells  ceases,  while  the  rest  of  the 
brain,  being  inactive  already  and  being  shut 
off  from  outward  stimulus,  remains  inert. 
Furthermore,  the  stopping  of  action  in  the 
cells  acting  at  the  time  seems  to  bring  the 
whole  brain  to  the  dead-point  ;  which  is 
logical  since  apparently  it  is  only  these  cells 
that  are  vibrating  at  the  moment.  After 
the  stoppage  a  time  is  necessary  to  raise 
the  potential  to  the  point  of  overcoming  the 
inertia.  Now  if  all  the  cells  were  at  the 
same  potential,  this  state  of  lethargy  would 
continue  till  the  whole  brain  eventually 
woke  up.  But  the  cells  are  not  all  at  the 
same  initial  potential ;  some  are  nearer  the 
activity  point  than  others.  Especially  are 
two  kinds  of  cells  at  a  higher  potential  than 
their  fellows  :  those  connected  with  habitual 
ideas  and  those  connected  with  ideas  pe- 
culiarly poignant  at  the  time.  It  is  to  the 
awaking  to  action  of  one  of  this  latter  class 
while  yet  the  rest  of  the  brain  still  stays 
torpid  that  the  peculiar  phenomena  of  the 


348  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

hypnotic  trance  are  probably  due.  The 
initiation  idea  thus  resurrected  is  the  idea  in 
the  subject's  mind  that  the  operator  will  have 
a  certain  indefinite  but  all-effective  power 
over  him  when  he  shall  have  lapsed  into  the 
trance.  It  is  not  necessary  that  this  impres- 
sion should  reach  the  level  of  full  belief ;  a 
bare  fear  that  he  may  be  thus  controlled  is 
enough.  That  the  mere  idea  of  it  should  be 
present  to  the  person  is  all  that  is  neces- 
sary. Now  such  idea  is  the  last  poignant 
idea  in  the  subject's  mind  before  he  com- 
poses himself  for  the  trance.  Consequently, 
after  he  has  entered  the  trance  state  it  is 
this  idea  that  is  nearest  the  point  of  pass- 
ing over  into  action  and  that,  as  the  whole 
potential  rises,  passes  over  first.  Thus  it  is 
the  idea  which  the  subject  carries  with  him 
into  the  trance  that  becomes  the  dominant 
idea  of  the  trance  itself. 

Now  the  fact  that  this  idea  alone  is  at 
the  necessary  potential  to  be  stirred  ex- 
plains the  insentience  of  the  brain  to  all 
other  stimuli.  The  brain  cells  connected 
with  it  alone  are  in  a  condition  to  be  affected 
from  without ;  all  others  are  affected  only 
as  they  are  connected  with  them.     Nor  are 


NOUMENA.  349 

these  secondary  ones  as  easily  stirred  by  the 
first  as  they  would  be  in  normal  life.  The 
brain  cells  are  all  abnormally  torpid.  In 
consequence,  as  the  motion  passes  along  them 
very  little  side  action  is  roused,  and,  as  it  is 
the  ramifying  side-thoughts  that  make  com- 
parison possible  and  constitute  judgment, 
*  the  hypnotic  subject  sees  no  incongruity  in 
his  actions  and  performs  each  with  a  self- 
abandonment  to  it  that  insures  a  perfection 
of  performance  unattainable  in  his  complex 
normal  state  of  mind. 

The  force  of  the  habitual  ideas  makes 
itself  felt  by  hindering  and  even  preventing 
the  performance  of  a  suggested  idea  that 
conflicts  with  the  subject's  character.  In- 
deed, other  things  equal,  the  grooves  of 
temperament  are  followed  by  the  train  of 
thought.  Less  force  is  necessary  to  set 
them  in  motion.  Not  only  is  the  subject's 
action  under  a  suggested  idea  in  keeping 
with  his  character,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
get  him  to  do  things  which  are  abhorrent 
to  it.  To  induce  a  subject  who  is  not 
essentially  depraved  to  commit  murder,  for 
example,  is  practically  beyond  even  the  oper- 
ator's power. 


350  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

We  have  parallels  to  such  semi-spontaneity 
of  action  of  an  habitual  idea  in  every-day 
life.  In  a  preoccupied  state  of  mind  we 
engage  upon  some  act  only  to  wake  to  find 
ourselves  doing  not  the  thing  we  started  to 
do,  but  the  habitual  one.  I  knew  a  man 
who,  having  come  home  late  and  gone  up- 
stairs to  dress  for  a  ball,  which  he  proceeded  * 
to  do  mechanically,  suddenly  found  himself 
in  bed.  The  preparatory  taking  off  of  his 
clothes  had  started  the  machinery,  which,  in 
default  of  supervision,  had  run  then  itself 
and  fatally  done  the  habitual  thing. 

Of  peculiarly  poignant  ideas  we  all  know 
countless  examples  of  the  persistent  manner 
in  which  they  turn  up  in  season  and  out  of 
it.  They  are  forever  showing  their  faces 
amid  the  ever  -  changing  crowd  of  other 
thoughts. 

That  the  hypnotic  subject  seems  to  be  on 
the  lookout  for  everything  connected  with 
his  hypnotizer  is  of  course  a  purely  uncon- 
scious one.  It  is  paralleled  in  waking  life 
by  the  exceeding  sensitiveness  of  any  acute 
idea  to  anything  connected  with  itself.  The 
lover,  the  politician,  the  burglar,  are  alive  to 
actions  related  to  their  quest  which  to  other 


NOUMENA.  351 

mortals  would  pass  unnoticed.  We  all  catch 
our  own  name  uttered  in  a  conversation  to 
all  the  rest  of  which  we  have  been  apparently 
quite  oblivious.  The  exceeding  sensibility 
of  the  entranced  to  the  acts  of  the  operator, 
joined  to  absolute  insentience,  so  far  as  ap- 
pears, to  irrelevant  matter,  need  not  surprise 
us,  since  we  are  all  hourly  doing  the  same 
thing-.  It  is  only  the  degree  of  completeness 
with  which  it  is  done  that  differs  sufficiently 
to  startle  us. 

The  relative  sensibility  of  the  hypnotized 
toward  his  hypnotizer,  side  by  side  with  his 
complete  insensibility  toward  all  else,  may 
thus  be  accounted  for;  but  there  is  a  further 
exhibition  of  sensibility  that  he  shows  which 
is  as  startling  as  it  is  inexplicable  on  the 
generally  received  theories  of  the  subject. 
This  is  the  surprising  vividness  of  his  con- 
sciousness of  things  of  which  he  comes  to 
have  any  consciousness  at  all.  We  have 
seen  an  adumbration  of  this  in  dreams,  but 
in  the  case  of  the  hypnotized  it  fairly  rises 
into  the  region  of  the  marvelous.  Like 
dreams,  it  is  evidenced  by  the  general  vivid 
character  of  the  subject's  experiences,  but 
unlike  them  it  is  further  borne  direct  witness 


352  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

to  by  mental  acts  so  out  of  every-day  experi- 
ence as  to  lead  hastily  credulous  persons  to 
attribute  them  to  some  sort  of  supernatural 
power.  For  the  hypnotic  subject  will  dis- 
play an  amount  of  knowledge  of  which  in 
his  norm^  state  he  is  known  not  to  possess 
even  the  rudiments.  Sometimes  his  appar- 
ently supernatural  insight  can  be  traced  to 
the  resurrection  of  memories  faint  at  the 
time  of  their  experiencing  and  long  since 
lapsed  ;  but  sometimes  it  is  due  to  the  actual 
ex  post  facto  creation  of  consciousness  out  of 
brain  processes  of  which  there  was  no  con- 
sciousness at  the  time  of  their  occurrence. 

Now  our  present  theory,  whatever  its 
merits  or  demerits  may  be,  is  at  least  able 
to  give  an  explanation  of  this  phenomenon. 
If  consciousness  be  nerve-glow,  a  local  mo- 
lecular change  of  the  cells  due  to  a  forced 
arrest  of  the  neural  current  from  temporary 
or  permanent  impermeability  of  path,  it  is 
precisely  in  the  generally  torpid  brain  of  the 
hypnotic  subject  that  it  should  be  most 
acute.  That  his  brain  generally  is  torpid  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  action  does  not  spon- 
taneously take  place  in  it.  When,  however, 
a  current  is  induced  from  the  only  starting- 


NOUMENA.  353 

point  possible,  the  suggestion  of  the  opera- 
tor, and  turned  into  the  desired  channel,  it 
traverses  a  path  whose  resistance  is  much 
above  the  normal.  Instead,  therefore,  of 
gliding  rapidly  along,  it  soon  expends  itself 
in  overcoming  the  friction  it  meets,  causing 
in  the  process  a  glow  of  the  successive  cells 
which  we  call  consciousness.  The  current 
tends,  of  course,  to  make  the  molecules  of 
the  cells  vibrate  as  they  did  before  rather 
than  in  some  perfectly  new  combination,  but 
it  finds  unwonted  difficulty  in  making  them 
vibrate  at  all.  The  result  is  that  the  old 
combination  of  cell  action  is  resurrected 
with  accompaniment  of  consciousness  ;  that 
is,  we  have  an  idea  where  before  we  had  only 
its  latent  possibility.  Whether  this  be  the 
revival  of  a  lapsed  memory,  or  the  evoking 
of  an  actual  bit  of  brand-new  consciousness, 
is  mere  question  of  degree.  The  greater 
the  resistance,  short  of  stopping  the  current, 
the  greater  the  current's,  so  to  speak,  crea- 
tive power. 

That  this  is  due  to  the  increased  resist- 
ance, and  not  to  an  hypothetically  increased 
current,  is  further  evident  on  considering  the 
alternative.     For  if  the  current  were  greater 


354  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

than  under  normal  conditions  would  be  the 
case,  it  should  both  continue  longer  and 
rouse  greater  side  action  along  its  course. 
But,  as  we  know,  it  does  the  contrary  of  both 
these  suppositions.  It  speedily  expends  it- 
self, and  starts  next  to  no  side-thoughts  in 
the  process.  It  thus  completely  negatives 
an  imputation  of  increased  force. 

Another  general  phenomenon  of  hypno- 
sis proves  the  same  relation  of  increased 
resistance  to  increased  consciousness.  As 
is  well  known,  the  events  of  the  subject's 
normal  life  are  both  possible  of  recall  and 
spontaneously  remembered  in  the  hypnotic 
state ;  while,  contrariwise,  the  hypnotic  life 
is  entirely  hid  from  the  man's  normal  con- 
sciousness. Now  this  fact,  instead  of  imply- 
ing greater  powers  in  the  hypnotic  state,  as 
superficially  viewed  it  seems  to  do,  implies 
exactly  the  opposite.  It  is  indeed  but  a 
more  general  instance  of  what  we  have  just 
considered.  For  the  permeability  of  a  path 
depends,  cceteris  paribus,  on  the  number 
of  times  it  has  been  traversed.  Now  the 
hypnotic  or  possession  paths,  having  been 
comparately  little  used,  are  relatively  less 
permeable   than   the   normal   ones.     Conse- 


NOUMENA.  355 

quently  an  hypnotic  path  is  not  likely  to  be 
entered  in  the  waking  state,  the  current  pre- 
ferring its  more  habitual  routes.  Even  if  the 
hypnotic  idea  should  reappear,  it  would  prob- 
ably fail  of  recognition  in  the  broad  glare  of 
the  normal  state,  since  in  the  twilight  of  the 
trance  its  associations  were  too  few  and 
feeble  to  give  it  fringe  enough  for  identifi- 
cation. For  like  reasons,  even  suggestion 
will  fail  to  resurrect  hypnotic  ideas,  or  iden- 
tify them  if  resurrected.  The  normal  ideas, 
on  the  contrary,  can  be  recalled  in  the  hyp- 
notic state,  because,  unless  blocked  by  sug- 
gestion, their  paths  are  the  most  permeable 
paths  there.  Consequently  that  the  hypnotic 
life  can  be  made  to  include  the  waking  one, 
while  reversely  the  waking  life  cannot  be 
made  to  include  the  hypnotic  one,  instead  of 
being  proof  of  greater  powers  in  the  latter, 
is  simply  proof  of  less  permeability  of  path. 

XII. 

From  hypnotic  trances  we  now  pass  to 
possession  ones. 

So  far  as  the  subject  is  aware,  the  portal 
to  both  is  the  same.  In  a  quite  uncon- 
sciously  similar  manner  to    that   purposely 


356  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

taken  by  the  hypnotic  subject,  the  person  to 
be  possessed  either  shuts  his  eyes  or  keeps 
them  fixed,  while  at  the  same  time  he  fixes 
his  thought  on  nothing.  If  he  thus  prop- 
erly focuses  both  kinds  of  attention,  he  soon 
goes  off. 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  apparent  same- 
ness of  method  employed  in  both  cases,  the 
subject's  symptoms  as  he  lapses  into  his 
trance,  and  his  subsequent  actions  in  it, 
differ  radically  in  the  two. 

A  throe  marks  the  entrance  into  the  pos- 
session trance,  and  a  suppressed  quiver  ac- 
companies it  throughout ;  the  hypnotic  trance 
is  entered  imperceptibly,  and  the  subject 
continues  apathetic  till  instigated  to  action 
by  a  word  or  sign  from  the  operator.  Per- 
haps the  most  peculiar  physical  feature  of 
the  possession  trance  is  the  rolled-up  condi- 
tion of  the  eyeballs,  so  rolled  up  that  the  iris 
is  half  out  of  sight.  This  position  they  hold 
throughout  the  trance,  and  the  eye  never 
winks,  though  the  eyelids  are  constantly 
twitching.  For  the  rest,  their  names  suffi- 
ciently describe  the  two  states,  —  the  one 
subject  seeming  in  truth  possessed  by  a  devil, 
while  the  other,  if  left  alone,  appearing  to 


NOUMENA.  357 

sleep  as  he  stands.  It  requires,  indeed,  no 
faith  in  the  onlooker  to  see  in  the  one  an 
alien  spirit  acting  and  speaking  through  the 
man.  Such  is  the  instant  natural  inference 
from  his  looks  and  behavior.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  hypnotic  subject  can  hardly  be 
said  to  have  either  looks  or  behavior  till 
commanded  to  have  them  to  order  by  the 
hypnotist. 

The  one  subject  thus  acts  from  spontane- 
ous impulse ;  the  other  only  of  derivative 
accord.  The  next  point  of  dissimilarity  is 
that  the  sense  of  self  differs  entirely  in  the 
two.  The  possessed  believes  himself  to  be 
another  person,  the  possessing  spirit.  The 
hypnotized  continues  to  think  himself  him- 
self unless  told  by  the  hypnotist  that  he  is 
some  one  else,  upon  which  he  promptly  con- 
ceives himself  that  other  person. 

In  both  trances  such  sensations  only  as 
are  compatible  with  the  hypothesis  enter- 
tained by  the  entranced  are  allowed  to  enter 
consciousness.  These  are  perceived  with 
abnormal  alacrity,  so  abnormal  as  to  have 
suggested  a  possible  explanation  of  clairvoy- 
ance. All  irrelevant  sensations  are  simply 
ignored.      It   is   as   if  telegrams  were  con- 


358  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

stantly  arriving  to  a  man  from  all  parts  of 
the  world,  and  he  should  leave  all  but  those 
from  Chili  unopened  on  his  desk.  That  the 
senses  and  the  lower  centres  do  their  work 
perfectly,  and  that  it  is  in  the  hemispheres 
that  the  messages  are  laid  aside  unscanned, 
is  proved  clearly  by  hypnotic  experiments. 
For  in  certain  cases  the  subject  can  be 
shown  to  have  carefully  distinguished  two 
things  first,  in  order  subsequently  to  ignore 
one  of  them.  These  last  sensations  may 
afterward  be  recovered. 

The  same  thing  occurs  in  the  case  of  the 
possessed.  Violent  sensations  unconnected 
with  the  spirit  of  the  trance,  and  even 
wounds  inflicted  in  it,  pass  unnoticed.  Pins 
stuck  into  the  man  are  not  felt  by  the  god 
at  all,  though  the  pain  of  the  prick  continues 
sharp  enough  to  be  very  disagreeably  felt  by 
the  man  on  coming  back  again  to  himself. 
Yet  when  he  does  thus  become  aware  of  it 
he  remains  quite  unable  to  assign  its  cause. 
On  the  other  hand,  sensations  appropriate 
to  the  god  may  almost  be  said  to  be  divined 
rather  than  ordinarily  perceived,  so  alert  to 
them  is  the  entranced. 

In  neither  trance,  under  natural,  that  is, 


NOUMENA.  359 

unsuggested,  conditions,  does  the  man  re- 
member anything  of  what  happened  in  the 
trance  after  he  has  waked  up.  In  the  case 
of  the  hypnotic  trance,  a  suggestion  by  the 
operator  during  the  trance  that  he  shall  re- 
member it  afterwards,  will  enable  him  to  do 
so.  As  to  the  possession  trance,  I  am  not 
aware  that  it  is  ever  remembered  in  the 
waking  state,  though  I  believe  this  could  be 
done.  Certainly  it  is  not  done  in  Japan. 
The  man  knows  nothing  of  the  god. 

Discontinuous,  however,  as  the  trance  con- 
sciousness is  from  the  normal  one,  in  each 
kind  of  trances  its  own  consciousness  is 
continuous.  The  hypnotic  subject  remem- 
bers in  subsequent  trances  what  happened 
in  former  ones.  So  does  the  god.  Some 
curious  details  of  this  I  shall  consider  pres- 
ently. 

Asrreeins:  thus  as  the  two  kinds  of  trances 
do  in  so  many  respects,  it  becomes  all  the 
more  singular  that  they  should  differ  so  in 
others,  entered,  as  they  both  seemed  to  be, 
by  the  same  gate.  In  what,  then,  does  the 
difference  consist  ?  It  consists,  so  I  con- 
ceive, in  the  idea  that  dominates  the  trance. 
To  explain  it,  we  must  look  a  little  back 


360  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

of  the  immediate  phenomena,  for  it  is  the 
power  behind  the  throne  of  thought  that 
does  the  business.  Now  in  both  trances 
the  general  state  of  the  brain  is  the  same. 
In  both  it  is  as  a  whole  torpid,  and  in  both 
action  eventually  takes  place  along  certain 
isolated  lines.  The  idea  that  first  reaches 
sufficient  potential  to  respond  to  an  outside 
stimulus,  or  to  stir  of  itself,  is  the  idea  that 
acts.  This  idea  is  the  dominant  idea  of  the 
trance. 

We  have  followed  this  out  in  the  case  of 
the  hypnotic  trance.  We  shall  now  see  that 
it  applies  equally  to  the  possession  trance, 
and  that  the  intrinsic  differences  in  the 
dominant  idea  of  each  account  for  the  differ- 
ent phenomena. 

Let  us  see  what  the  dominant  idea  in  each 
case  is.  The  hypnotic  subject  enters  the 
deadening  processes  leading  to  the  trance 
with  the  idea  —  more  or  less  definite,  from  a 
full  belief  to  a  bare  fear  —  that  in  the  com- 
ing trance  the  hypnotizer  wall  have  an  irre- 
sistible power  over  him.  That  he  will  then 
lose  his  identity,  will  cease  to  be  himself,  is 
no  part  of  this  thought,  except  as  uncon- 
sciously included  in  the  power  the  operator 


NOUMENA.  361 

may  be  able  to  exert.  The  person  to  be 
possessed,  on  the  other  hand,  enters  his 
trance  under  the  firm  conviction  that  he  is 
about  to  become  the  god  or  the  devil,  or 
whatever  else  the  possessing  spirit  is  to  be. 

Now  each  of  these  ideas  proves  exponent 
of  what  happens  in  their  respective  trances. 
In  the  one  trance,  the  subject  acts  like  a 
mind-mechanism  worked  at  the  will  of  the 
operator ;  in  the  other,  he  acts,  as  the  com- 
munity considers,  like  a  god. 

That  this  is  due  to  the  dominant  idea  ris- 
ing first  to  potential  possibility,  is  more  or 
less  demonstrable  phenomenally.  In  the 
possession  trance  we  can  actually  see  the 
increasing  effect  of  this  rise.  The  statu- 
esque immovability  preceding  the  trance  is 
eventually  shaken  by  a  slight  quiver,  and 
gains  till  it  culminates  in  the  throe  of  pos- 
session. In  the  hypnotic  subject,  the  rise  is 
not  directly  evident.  The  character  of  the 
dominant  idea  accounts  for  this.  The  hyp- 
notic subject  is  possessed  by  a  purely  pas- 
sive idea,  the  idea  of  the  eventual  influence 
over  him  of  the  operator,  which,  as  yet,  is 
latent,  and  passes  into  action  only  on  com- 
mand.    His  dominant  idea  never  thus  quite 


J 


362  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

peeps  over  the  threshold  of  consciousness, 
but  merely  stands  by  to  usher  other  ideas 
in.  It  gives  them  their  pass,  without  which 
they  would  be  refused  admittance.  In 
the  spirit-possessed,  action  is  spontaneous. 
There,  the  dominant  idea  actually  takes  pos- 
session of  the  otherwise  vacated  apartments 
of  the  mind  and  runs  the  establishment  of 
its  own  motion,  incidentally  permitting  no 
idea  to  come  in  that  has  not  somehow  busi- 
ness with  it.  Its  energy,  therefore,  passes 
over  of  itself  from  the  potential  kinetic  form. 
Its  energy,  also,  is  much  the  greater  of  the 
two.  For  to  initiate  action  of  itself  shows 
more  activity  inherent  in  the  idea  than 
merely  to  respond  to  a  shove  from  without. 
This  explains  the  apathy  of  the  general 
hypnotic  state  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
throe  and  subsequent  quiver  of  the  possess- 
ory trance  on  the  other. 

If  the  energy  of  the  idea  be  not  kept  up 
by  appropriate  stimulation,  it  gradually  falls, 
as  is  shown  by  the  lapsing  of  the  subject, 
when  left  alone,  into  a  state  of  coma.  But 
the  aptitude  of  the  idea  to  act  remains  rela- 
tively the  same.  For,  on  renewed  incanta- 
tion, the  dominant  idea  again  rises  to  a  point 
of  action  before  the  rest  of  the  brain. 


NOUMENA.  363 

Both  entranced  states  thus  dififer  from  the 
normal  condition,  not  in  the  mind's  being 
curiously  open,  as  at  first  one  is  tempted  to 
think,  but  in  its  being  curiously  shut.  For, 
in  the  normal  state,  unless  some  fixed  idea 
chance  for  the  time  partially  to  have  closed 
the  avenues  of  approach,  the  mind  lies  open 
to  all  comers,  incoming  ideas  as  v^^ell  as  sen- 
sations, all  of  whom  it  eagerly  welcomes, 
and  then  after  admission  quietly  chokes 
such  as  on  inspection  it  does  not  happen  to 
fancy.  In  the  entranced  state,  on  the  other 
hand,  no  idea  is  admitted  at  all  unless  per- 
sonally related  to  the  possessing  idea,  and 
when  once  introduced  is  permitted  full  play 
in  the  premises. 

Whatever  thus  gains  admittance  through 
the  dominant  idea  is,  therefore,  from  meet- 
ing little  or  no  opposition,  all-powerful.  In 
the  perfectly  hypnotized  person,  the  slight- 
est hint  from  the  operator  produces  instan- 
taneous and  complete  action.  For,  in  that 
motionless  mind,  there  are  practically  no 
counter-forces  present  to  oppose  it,  nor  are 
any  such  roused  by  its  action  to  check  it 
after  it  has  started.  There  is  nothing  but  it 
to  act.     Only  when  it  clashes  with  another 


364  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

visitor  does  any  hesitation  or  difficulty  re- 
sult. But  the  man's  sense  of  his  own  iden- 
tity does  not  change,  because  it  is  not  a  part 
of  the  dominant  idea  that  it  should.  When 
by  suggestion  an  idea  of  such  change  enters 
his  mind,  identity  changes  at  once. 

In  perfect  subjects  there  is  no  conscious- 
ness of  constraint.  It  is  only  when  the  hyp- 
nosis is  imperfect  that  side-ideas  are  roused 
enough  to  suggest  the  possibility  of  acting 
otherwise.  The  subject  then  becomes  dimly 
aware  of  compulsion,  without,  however,  hav- 
ing any  definite  conception  of  what  that  com- 
pulsion consists.  He  simply  feels  that  he 
must  do  so  and  so ;  and  he  does  it. 

In  waking  life,  a  fixed  idea  will  often  mask 
itself  in  the  same  manner.  We  feel  that  we 
must  act  in  a  certain  way,  often  in  a  very 
trivial  way,  against  our  will,  as  we  say,  yet 
without  questioning  for  an  instant  that  it  is 
we  who  act.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  the 
idea  that  for  the  moment  is  the  I ;  and  the 
faint  remonstrance  of  which  we  are  con- 
scious is  due  to  such  faint  side-ideas  as  are 
roused  by  its  action. 

But  in  the  possession  trance  the  dominant 
idea  consists  consciously  in  a  change  of  iden- 


NOUMENA.  365 

tity.  The  consciousness  in  the  entranced 
state  throbs  with  the  sense  of  this  new  per- 
sonahty  as  waking  life  does  with  the  sense 
of  self.  Consequently,  all  the  possessed's 
thoughts,  words,  and  actions  conform  to  it ; 
none  that  do  not  finding  foothold  in  his  mind. 
The  man  does  not  simulate  the  spirit  or  the 
god.  Mentally,  he  is  the  spirit  or  the  god, 
and  his  mechanism,  in  so  far  as  in  him  lies, 
responds  in  its  performance.  His  is  anything 
but  a  case  of  acting ;  it  is  an  absolute  change 
of  identity,  the  new  ego  being  the  man's  con- 
ception of  the  god.  Such  may  not  be  the 
god,  but  it  also  is  not  the  man. 

From  all  this,  we  perceive  a  certain  paral- 
lelism between  trances  and  dreams,  with  cer- 
tain divergences.  In  both  the  mind  is  inac- 
tive, except  along  a  particular  line.  In  both 
the  illumination  is  lightning-like,  and  in  both 
no  general  illumination  resulting  in  a  general 
judgment  of  things  as  they  really  are  takes 
place,  because  of  the  current's  failure  to 
rouse  side-thoughts.  But  in  the  trance  the 
dominant  idea  is  much  stronger  than  in  the 
dream,  and  persists  through  the  whole  of  it 
as  a  ground  for  all  other  ideas.  Especially 
is  this  so  in  the  possession  trance.     And  the 


366  OCCULT  japan: 

reason  for  this  is  more  or  less  patent.  The 
idea  that  causes  the  dream  is  much  less  con- 
sciously absorbing  than  the  idea  that  pos- 
sessed the  possessed.  The  one  is  haphaz- 
ardly entertained,  the  other  is  purposed. 
Secondly,  it  is  probable  that  the  brain, 
generally,  is  much  deeper  asleep  in  the 
trance  than  in  the  dream.  The  fact  that  of 
our  own  motion  we  are  so  close  to  waking 
when  we  begin  to  dream  implies  this,  and 
the  easy  consequence  of  one  idea  upon  an- 
other in  the  dream  state  goes  to  back  it  up. 
Lastly,  the  possessing  idea  in  the  trance  is 
repeated  and  realized  again  and  again  in 
successive  trances.  This  strengthens  it  im- 
mensely. How  much  so,  is  evident  from 
the  great  development  observable  in  trances. 
A  trance  that  occurs  for  the  first  time  is 
usually  very  embryonic  ;  but  by  repetition 
the  idea  acquires  momentum  that  rivals  that 
of  single-purposed  waking  action. 

Habit  is  just  as  potent  in  the  trance  state 
as  in  the  normal  one.  In  both  lives  a  self- 
educatory  process  goes  on,  any  action  gain- 
ing proficiency  by  practice.  As  we  have 
seen,  divine  development  is  as  duly  marked 


NOUMENA.  367 

in  the  Shinto  trances  as  human  development 
in  every-day  man. 

Much  of  the  supposed  divinatory  power 
of  the  possessed  is  attributable  to  the  same 
cause  that  makes  the  hypnotic  subject  so 
supernaturally  omniscient.  The  brain  of 
any  one  is  a  register  of  sense  impressions  to 
a  degree  unsuspected  by  its  owner.  It  is 
none  too  much  to  say  that  everything  we 
have  ever  experienced  is  there,  could  we  only 
get  at  it !  The  possessed  does  get  at  it,  or 
at  some  of  it,  and  surprises  himself  quite  as 
much  as  others  by  having  done  so.  Whence 
his  honesty  in  denying  that  it  is  he  that  does 
it  and  the  natural  belief  of  others  in  its  su- 
pernatural origin. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  noted  here  how 
ill  the  self  fares  under  these  illusions  and 
disillusions  of  the  trance.  That  self  can 
thus  be  snuffed  out  at  a  word  from  the 
operator,  or  by  the  mere  idea  of  god  in  the 
possession  trance,  betrays  it  no  transcen- 
dental thing.  Self,  indeed,  would  seem  itself 
to  be ;  and  the  bundle  of  ideas  in  that  mass 
of  machinery,  the  brain,  alone  to  constitute 
the  I. 


368  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

XIII. 

Certain  differences  between  the  Japanese 
possession  trances  and  others  of  their  kind  are 
significant.  To  begin  with,  one  pecuharity 
of  the  Shinto  trance  is  the  maezas  connec- 
tion with  it.  This  man  is  the  official  inter- 
mediary of  the  god,  and  he  holds  a  curious 
intermediary  position  between  the  person 
spoken  to  in  the  mediumistic  trance  and  the 
operator  in  the  hypnotic  one.  He  is  the 
nakodo,  or  go-between,  of  the  whole  transac- 
tion. He  is  the  only  part  of  humanity  whom 
the  god  deigns  spontaneously  to  recognize. 
He  alone  may  speak  to  the  god,  and  him 
alone  the  god  condescends  to  answer.  Any 
one  else,  however  pious,  who  desires  to  con- 
verse with  the  god,  must  first  be  brought  in 
rapport  with  him  by  the  maeza.  Until  such 
rapport  be  established,  the  god  pays  the  out- 
sider's remarks  no  attention.  That  he  is 
not  quite  so  deaf  as  he  seems,  however,  is 
shown  by  his  occasionally  scolding  the  maeza 
for  irreverential  conduct  on  the  part  of  such 
outsider.  I  blush  to  say  that  I  never  knew 
this  to  happen  except  in  my  own  case,  when 
engaged  in  testing  the  reality  of  the  god  by 


NOUMENA.  369 

making,  too  openly,  a  pin-cushion  of  him,  or 
otherwise  treating  him  with  what  he  took 
for  disrespect. 

But  the  maesa  does  not  affect  the  god's 
actions,  and  only  incidentally  suggests  by 
his  questions  the  current  of  the  divine 
thought  precisely  as  one  person  does  that 
of  another  in  every-day  conversation.  The 
maesa  usually  starts  the  topic,  but  the  god 
is  responsible  for  the  replies.  The  maeza  is 
thus,  unlike  the  operator  in  the  hypnotic 
trance,  not  the  power  behind  the  throne,  but 
merely  the  master  of  ceremonies  before  it. 
In  this  he  differs  again  from  a  person  who 
has  a  sitting  with  a  trance-medium,  and  who 
is  not  supposed  to  open  his  mouth  except 
upon  his  own  business.  There  is,  however, 
a  greater  gulf  between  the  god  and  the 
maesa,  particularly  pure  as  the  latter  is,  than 
between  the  sitter  and  the  informing  spirit. 

We  now  come  to  a  very  suggestive  dis- 
similarity between  the  Shint5  possessions 
and  all  others. 

Of  trances  of  the  possessory  sort  there 
are  manifold  varieties  to  be  found  scattered 
over  the  surface  of  our  globe.  Believers 
grade  them  after  the  ethics  of  the  possessing 


370  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

spirits,  a  pious  if  not  over-profitable  criterion. 
In  Japan,  for  example,  the  rank  of  the  god  is 
gauged  by  the  knowledge  he  displays  of  his 
own  family  mythology,  while  in  America  pos- 
sessing spirits  are  valued  for  their  proficiency 
in  a  certain  milk-and-water  philosophy,  meta- 
physically tinctured  of  religion.  The  more 
milk-and-water  their  well  of  information 
proves,  the  purer  proof-spirit  is  it  esteemed 
to  be. 

To  science  the  spirits'  morals  would  be  of 
more  consequence  did  they  not  so  singularly 
mirror  the  morals  of  the  race  which  the 
spirits  are  kind  enough  to  possess.  As  it  is, 
so  remarkable  a  resemblance  in  ethical  stand- 
ards between  the  immutable  gods  and  ever- 
evolving  man,  observable  at  all  times  and 
among  all  peoples,  proves  too  much  for 
popular  deity.  Such  concordance,  further 
emphasized  by  the  striking  manner  in  which 
as  a  race  advances  in  its  conception  of  con- 
duct the  moral  development  of  deity  keeps 
pace  with  the  moral  development  of  the  dev- 
otee, hints  that  between  the  orthodox  and 
the  true  divine  comedy,  the  parts  of  creature 
and  creator  have  unfortunately  got  reversed. 

The  more  abstract  the  conceptions  of  a 


NOUMENA.  371 

race  grow  to  be,  the  more  abstract  become 
its  gods,  and  in  consequence  the  less  they 
deign  temporarily  to  inhabit  mankind.  A 
growing  incapacity  to  conceive  how  a  more 
and  more  abstracted  god  would  act  in  the 
concrete  is  indirectly  responsible  for  this. 
Among  aboriginal  peoples  the  gods  them- 
selves descend  to  embodiment  in  man  ; 
among  more  evolved  races  the  spirits  of  de- 
parted men  take  their  place. 

But  it  is  not  simply  in  their  morals  that 
the  gods  show  themselves  in  sympathy  with 
their  people.  In  their  characters  generally 
you  shall  see  reflected  the  race  character- 
istics. In  Japan  the  gods  are  eminently 
Japanese.  They  are  dignified,  artistic,  simple 
souls,  of  the  most  exceptional  deportment. 
Their  life  is  made  up  of  one  long  chain  of 
ornamental,  if  somewhat  conventional,  mo- 
ments. 

Especially  is  this  agreement  of  gods  and 
men  conspicuous  in  that  most  interesting  of 
Japanese  traits  —  the  race's  unindividuality. 
As  we  saw,  one  of  the  strangest  features  of 
Japanese  possession  is  the  way  in  which 
several  gods  deign  to  share  one  trance. 
Now  when  this  copartnership  is  closely  scru- 


372  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

tinized  it  will  be  found  to  afford  proof  of  a 
curiously  conceived  impersonal  kind  of  deity. 
It  is  not  that  to  one  unacquainted  with 
the  gods  there  appears  at  first  sight  to  be 
a  very  strong  family  likeness  between  them, 
so  strong  as  to  imply  no  very  marked  in- 
dividuality in  any,  for  such  superficial  re- 
semblance  is  common  to  every  race  in  the 
eyes  of  others.  It  is  in  the  character  of 
the  divine  consciousness  that  the  peculiarity 
consists.  For  the  consciousness  of  any  one 
god  is  continuous  in  successive  trances,  and 
the  consciousness  of  successive  gods  is  con- 
tinuous in  any  one  trance.  That  is,  in  the 
person  of  the  same  man  the  god  remembers 
what  he  did,  said,  and  heard  in  different 
trances,  and  different  gods  remember  what 
the  others  did,  said,  and  heard  in  the  same 
trance,  while  perfectly  differentiating  them- 
selves from  those  others.  But  different  gods 
do  not  remember  about  each  other  in  differ- 
ent trances.  The  first  of  these  capabilities 
is  of  course  the  usual  trance  -  memory,  as 
self-identifying  a  one  as  the  man's  normal 
memory.  The  second  shows  that  an  indefi- 
nite idea  of  god  underlies  the  several  special 
manifestations  of  it.  The  third  indicates  the 
extent  of  this  common  bond. 


NOUMENA.  373 

That  each  god  thus  knows  his  own  acts 
and  sensations  from  those  of  every  other 
god,  in  the  same  trance,  and  remembers  his 
previous  acts  and  sensations  in  successive 
trances,  fulfills  all  the  phenomena  that  we 
recognize  as  constituting  an  individual  self. 
It  is  therefore  only  natural  for  it  instantly 
and  irrevocably  to  have  been  taken  for  such. 
On  the  other  hand,  that  one  god  should  have 
any  idea  of  the  actions  of  his  predecessor 
when  embodied,  hints  at  a  ground-work  of 
unindividual  self. 

The  change  of  god  evidently  comes  about 
by  unconscious  auto-suggestion.  Certainly 
the  subject  himself  has  no  inkling  before- 
hand what  gods  will  constitute  his  surprise 
party,  if  his  seemingly  honest  profession  to 
that  effect  is  to  be  believed,  and  there  is 
really  no  reason  to  doubt  it.  Nor  is  the 
change  due  to  any  suggestion  on  the  part 
of  the  niaesa,  the  official  interviewer  of  the 
god.  For  the  maeza  asks  no  leading  ques- 
tions on  the  subject ;  he  confines  himself  to 
asking  after  the  fact  who  has  come,  and  then 
to  questionings  about  the  cure  of  the  disease, 
or  other  desired  mundane  or  divine  matter, 
quite  apart  from  the  personality  of  the  god. 


374  OCCUL  T  JAPAN. 

The  auto-suggestion  is  of  two  parts,  —  the 
general  idea  of  change,  and  its  particular 
performance.  The  lirst  is  like  the  uninten- 
tionally induced  hypnotic  habits  of  the  Sal- 
petriere.  The  gods  have  learned  that  chey 
are  expected  to  come  in  Indian  file,  and 
kindly  do  so  accordingly.  That  they  did  so 
initially  is  due  undoubtedly  to  the  underly- 
ing impersonality  of  the  race. 

That  there  is  this  general  predisposition 
to  rotation  in  office  is  proved  by  the  earli- 
ness  with  which  the  change  shows  itself.  It 
appears  long  before  the  possession  is  perfect 
enough  for  words.  The  boy  whose  divine 
development  I  instanced  before  was  already 
several  gods  in  turn,  while  as  yet  unable  to 
talk  as  any.  The  particular  change  comes 
about  from  associations  between  the  idea 
of  one  god  and  the  idea  of  the  other,  con- 
tracted either  in  the  normal  or  the  entranced 
state,  and  then  evoked  in  the  course  of  the 
entranced's  heavenly  thinking.  Sometimes 
the  link  becomes  visible.  A  god  will  say 
that  he  is  himself  unable  to  answer  a  ques- 
tion put  to  him,  and  will  report  the  matter 
to  some  higher  god  for  solution,  after  which 
an  attendant  of   the  higher   god   descends. 


A'OUMENA.  375 

This  would  seem  to  show  that  a  sufficiently 
connective  thought  in  one  trance  will  pass 
over  to  become  a  part  of  the  dominant  idea 
in  the  next.  A  god  may  thus  present  his 
successor. 

Somewhat  analogous  to  this,  though  not 
similar,  is  the  way  in  which  the  control  of  a 
trance  medium  has  been  known  to  change. 
But  this,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  has  rarely 
happened  in  the  midst  of  any  one  trance. 
The  spirits  spoken  to  change  with  kaleido- 
scopic activity,  but  the  control  itself  is  a 
tolerably  stable  spirit. 

Indifferentism  to  individuality  crops  out 
thus  in  the  curious  thread  of  impersonal 
god  -  head,  mere  god -head  as  such,  upon 
which  the  several  particular  personalities  are 
strung,  because  it  is  so  fundamental  a  qual- 
ity of  the  race  that  it  forms  of  necessity 
part  of  their  every  idea. 

The  subject's  dominant  idea  evidently  con- 
sists not  of  the  possession  by  any  particular 
god,  but  rather  of  the  prognostication  of 
possession  by  deity  in  general.  For  were 
the  idea  of  the  individuality  of  the  posses- 
sory god  strong,  it  would  not  of  itself  yield 
possession  of  the  premises  to  another.      On 


376  OCCULT  JAPAN. 

the  other  hand,  it  is  no  mere  abstract  idea 
of  god,  but  rather  a  vaguely  concrete  gen- 
eral idea,  accidentally  clothed  upon  by  par- 
ticularity. For  the  gods  are  successively 
individual  enough,  in  spite  of  their  hasty 
succession.  In  fact,  the  Japanese  idea  of 
god  is  kin  to  all  the  other  Japanese  ideas  ; 
like  their  idea  of  man,  for  example,  as  it 
shows  itself  in  their  speech,  the  idea  neither 
of  a  man  nor  of  mankind,  but  just  the  idea  : 
man. 

The  dominant  idea  thus  betrays  a  very 
curious  state  of  mind  in  the  possessed. 

Though  the  man's  self  has  quite  departed, 
the  mere  lessness  of  that  self  survives,  and 
not  only  characterizes  all  subsequent  ten- 
ants, but  unites  them  by  a  sort  of  common 
lease.  The  individual  has  vanished ;  but 
the  race  is  left. 

Such  a  result,  indeed,  is  what  we  should 
expect  from  our  theory  on  the  subject.  For 
the  race  characteristics  are  the  ones  most 
deeply  graven  into  the  character  of  the  in- 
dividual. They  are  the  great  arteries  of 
thought,  the  well-worn  channels  through 
which  the  stream  flows  most  easily.  So 
easily  does  the  current  pass  through  them 


NOUMENA.  377 

that  the  thoughts  it  rouses  there  mingle  un- 
consciously with  a  man's  thinking  most  of 
the  time.  They  constitute  what  we  know  as 
habitual  ones  in  the  normal  state.  When, 
therefore,  the  brain  lies  clogged  in  the  gen- 
eral lethargy  of  the  trance,  these  channels 
still  remain  relatively  more  permeable  than 
the  less  pervious  veins  of  more  recently 
evolved  sensations  peculiar  to  the  individual. 
Thus  the  activity  that  cannot  wake  the  man 
wakes  the  race. 

This  brings  us  to  confront  the  atavistic 
character  of  the  general  trance  state.  A  pri- 
ori, we  have  just  seen  that  the  state  should 
hark  back,  and  a  posteriori  that  it  does  so  in 
this  particular  case.  But  we  have  evidence 
that  it  is  atavistic  generally.  The  easy 
transition  from  one  idea  to  another  in  the 
hypnotic  state,  the  want  of  reasoning  shown 
in  it,  the  intentness  and  energy  with  which 
any  given  idea  will  be  pursued  one  moment, 
only  to  be  thrown  over  the  next  with  a  com- 
pleteness which  is  caricatural,  are  states  of 
mind  that  recall  childhood  for  comparison. 
The  man  has  become  a  sort  of  grotesque 
boy  again.  Could  all  ide'es  fixes  be  eradi- 
cated, that  is,  could  we  have  the  perfectly 


3/8  OCCULT  japan: 

normal  man  for  subject,  then  if  the  operator 
could  suggest  some  action  colorless  enough 
to  let  only  native  activity  come  into  play, 
—  a  purity  of  experiment  practically  unat- 
tainable, —  we  should  probably,  as  the  trance 
state  deepened  and  the  man  lost  himself,  see 
him  lose  first  his  individual  characteristics, 
then  his  family  traits,  then  the  habits  of  his 
clan,  and  so  down,  till  only  the  broadly  hu- 
man ones  survived.  The  trance  state  would 
undo  what  evolution  has  done,  and  return  to 
us  a  primeval  savage  in  the  body  of  an  end- 
of-the-century  man.  But  fortunately  that 
most  insipid  individual,  the  normal  man, 
whose  mild  portrait  you  shall  see  in  any 
composite  photograph,  it  is  impossible  to 
obtain.  For  the  very  essence  of  evolution 
consists  in  the  survival  of  the  slightly  ab- 
normal. The  spirit  of  the  cosmos  is  itself 
one  great  idee  fixe  working  itself  out.  The 
normality  of  the  whole  depends  upon  the 
abnormality  of  each  part.  To  be  a  trifle  one- 
sided gives  each  of  us  our  chance.  Indeed, 
nothing  is  easier  than  to  show  that  were 
everything,  as  the  Roman  expression  had 
it,  smooth  and  round,  nothing  could  ever 
have  developed,  just  as  \^^thout  irregularity 


NOUMENA.  379 

no  motion  could  have  existed  in  the  solar 
system  except  one  vast  self-crushing  in  the 
sun. 

Thus  idiosyncracies  are  a  necessa''y  part 
of  us,  but  they  are  numerous  and  diverse 
in  proportion  to  the  height  the  individual 
development  has  attained.  They  are  much 
less  marked  between  man  and  man  in  Japan 
than  among  Ar}-an  folk.  The  average  Jap- 
anese more  nearly  approaches  his  own  na- 
tional norm. 

This  lands  us  in  our  investigation  at  an 
unexpected  conclusion,  to  \<\X.,  that  these 
gods  really  are  what  they  claim  to  be.  In 
Shinto  god-possession  we  are  viewing  the 
actual  incarnation  of  the  ancestral  spirit  of 
the  race.  The  man  has  temporarily  become 
once  more  his  own  indefinitely  great  great- 
grandfather. It  is  a  veridic  incarnation,  if 
ever  there  was  one.  If  these  his  ancestors 
were  gods  in  the  past,  gods  they  are  that 
descend  to  embodiment  to-day. 


B  MTORN  TO  oil^"^"^  USE 

I OAM  ir^"  ^^°^° 

LOAN  DEPT 

Renewals  mav  bV^^**"  .^^2-3405  ^"°^^^  onJy:' 


-^^!^:^!r^L^--^APR  15  1987 
i^itPLiBR-ARy  LOAM 


476— A-32 


General  Library 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


BQ0301b7Sa 


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I  II 


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